The Trump administration "will be primarily focused on the United States and its interests in the world," he said. "In this context, a certain standoff with Russia will clearly take place and it could be a rather tough one. Trump will try to understand what Russia has and how it can challenge him."
Nevertheless, "all these people are capable of reaching common ground," the analyst added, referring to the new US leadership.
Suzdaltsev, the deputy head of the Faculty of World Economic and International Relations at the Moscow-based Higher School of Economics, noted that even if the rhetoric could well be tough sometimes, the incoming US administration is not intent on "carrying out a liberal revolution in Russia."
As a result, there will be "dialogue and certain agreements" between Russia and the United States, the analyst maintained.
US President-elect Donald Trump has already indicated that he wanted to improve relations with Moscow and possibly cooperate on tackling Daesh. If so, this will mark a major departure from Russia's relations with the US under the Obama administration in recent years.
"The Democrats consider their views to be the ultimate truth. It is impossible to reach any agreement with them in this respect. They are not focused on national interests, but rather on globalist goals and universal human values. In this sense the ability of Obama's team to reach deals has passed into legend," he said. "In recent years, Russia has not tried to engage in meaningful diplomacy with the Obama administration since it was useless."
