Sputnik: Mr.Kosachev, neither Donald Trump nor other world leaders have "attacked" Russia at the UN General Assembly meeting, as we saw it during the last years of the Obama administration. Why is that?
Konstantin Kosachev: First of all, I believe Russia has been repeatedly mentioned in a positive way in many contributions throughout the debate, because Russia is definitely a global power with a very constructive contribution to the solution of many international problems.
Why was Russia not mentioned negatively this time by the American president, by the French president, by many other Western leaders? This, for me, is kind of a surprise, because we've become somehow used to seeing Russia being artificially placed in this group of "evil states" that always create problems and are a global threat to international peace and security.
Something is going on. I believe that this group of Western countries has started to understand that the world is much more complicated than just black-and-white and that in order to achieve sustainable solutions to global problems, one needs to involve each and every country, each and every potential opportunity to have collective efforts in place.
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I hope that the speech of Mr. Trump yesterday was a kind of confirmation that the American president personally and, probably, his team are still ready to seek understanding with Russia and at least continue talking with Russia, which is definitely the only way to proceed. So, I'm more optimistic after the General Debate here in New York this time. I hope that these contributions will further on lead to solutions that will be mutually satisfactory.
The views and opinions expressed by Konstantin Kosachev are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
