So far, things don’t look as cheerful as many would like, as the EU had just prolonged the sanctions and all of the US presidential candidates aside from Donald Trump are vehemently anti-Russian in their campaign platforms.
However, it’s already a fact that the sanctions war has been hurting Europe quite a lot, and with increased diplomatic efforts between Russia and the West over Syria, a window of pragmatic economic opportunity might emerge by the middle of the year, provided that the US allows for it.
Similarly, if Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee, there’s a good chance that he will continue what will by then have been his accepted stance towards Russia. Granted, things could go in the completely opposite direction as well, but regardless, this is still a worthy topic to discuss going into the new year.
Vladimir Sotnikov, International Affairs expert at the Institute of the World Economy and Foreign Relations and the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences (studio guest); Alex Bratersky, Gazera.ru special correspondent; and Dr. Roslyn Fuller, Research Associate, Waterford Institute of Technology and author of: Beasts and Gods: How Democracy Changed Its Meaning and Lost Its Purpose (from Dublin), joined us to discuss the issue.
