The Atlantic Council held the conference, devoted to the present and future of US-Russian relationships, Voice of America reports.
“New Dawn: Russia and the West after the US Presidential Elections” is the topic of the conference, held on November 3 in the Atlantic Council, the Washington non-governmental research center. Among the participants – former high-ranking officials of the machinery of government (Phillip Breedlove, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe and former Deputy Assistant to the President for Homeland Security Judy Ansley) as well as some political experts – specialists on Russia and journalists.
The espionage and interference with electoral processes of other countries is the longtime practice of different countries, BuzzFeed Editor Miriam Elder stated. However, she emphasized that for the first time in the modern history one state published the documents, obtained as a result of hacker attack against the political structures of the other, as Russia did, posting in the Internet the emails of the Democratic Party. According to Elder, these actions may be viewed as the interference with US pre-election campaign.
In most US states, Russia is not the subject of active discussion of voters, Professor of International Policy of the University of Notre-Dame Michael Desch reminded, and the Russian interference with US domestic affairs will not become the determining factor for citizens while taking decision at the elections on November 8. According to the political expert, the Russian trace “in the scandal with emails” remains the secondary factor for US public.
Nevertheless, Russia is the “big factor” of the pre-election discussion, the analyst notes. It is acknowledged, on the one hand, by praises of the Republican candidate Donald Trump towards Vladimir Putin as the “strong leader”, and, from the other hand, the criticism of Trump’s claims as the instrument of political struggle in hands of Hilary Clinton and her supporters.
The agenda of the conference is the issue of efficiency of sanctions against Russia, imposed in response to Crimea annexation and meddling in the affairs of Ukraine as the lever of pressure on Vladimir Putin’s regime, as well as the discussion of Washington’s strategy against Moscow during the presidency of a new, 45th US President.
