Interview with Viktor Linnik

Viktor Linnik, a political analyst and Editor in Chief of the Slovo weekly newspaper, spoke to Russia Today on the current state of Russia – U.S. relations.

Russia Today: This summit comes at the time of very tense relations between Russia and the U.S. It has been said that we maybe are heading towards another Cold War. Do you agree with that?

Viktor Linnik: I understand why we can have this kind of reading of the current situation in our relationship. But basically I think there have been highs and lows in this really long dialogue, post-Perestroyka if you will call it dialogue between the U.S. and Russia. And I think that there have been some storms, but notwithstanding that I think that we face very real issues in our problems and I do not think that Russia could be happy with new ABM defence systems deployed in Eastern Europe. This is something that Putin will be talking about to President Bush. And when President Bush says Russia has nothing to be afraid of regarding these systems, I think that is not the kind of talk Mr Putin will accept, you know, straight-faced. 

RT: How far do you think personal meetings like this one go towards resolving tensions?

V.L.: A very good question. I think what we will see today, these meetings do not resolve the issues, I mean by at large. They certainly do help to air the agreements, the tensions, the points we find disagreements over. But you cannot exclude any big decisions out of these personal rendezvous. This is not to say they are useless. They are good. They are good and I think especially at this period of our relationship when Russia is increasingly criticized for lack of democracy at home and certainly the White House is increasingly criticized for being too NATO-minded in its approaches to Russia.

RT: As Germans would love to play out the differences between the two countries, but there are certainly issues that they have in common, where they can found common ground like, for example, aid to the developing world, co-operation on against terrorism and those sorts of things. Do you think that there is room for consensus and progress there?

V.L.: I am absolutely sure that whatever areas, you know, would be covered on common ground, I think we will go on these issues and certainly whatever disagreements we have, they are not to deny the common ground that we already have and will have in the future. So I think the disagreements will always exaggerated?, you are absolutely right, because they are a sort of flashy, if you want. But certainly we will stock the way, we will go the way we did in the past and I think that disagreements will be there in the future; this will not stop us, as I think, from going on with the dialogue.

Earlier, Viktor Linnik joined Russia Today to comment on the President Putin`s address to the Federal Assembly.

Russia Today: First question regarding the moratorium on the Adapted Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty. Will Russia implement it? Are these intentions serious or is it just rhetoric?

Viktor Linnik: I think, we certainly see here a very important shift in Russia