MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/. A leading Russian expert on Russian-US affairs has warned against stepping what he described as a certain "red line" in bilateral relations.
"One has a positive feeling that Russia and the United States in bilateral relations remain within a realm of common sense, but the border line is very thin and delicate and it would be a great mistake to step over it," the deputy director of the Institute of US and Canada Studies under the Russian Academy of Sciences, Viktor Kremenyuk, told TASS in an interview on Thursday.
"The common interests that Russia and the United States share, such as nuclear weapons non-proliferation and control of regional conflicts, may play a certain role as an obstacle to a further cooling in bilateral relations. Or they may not. Everything will depend on the responsibility of politicians, who fortunately have displayed mutual caution," the scholar believes. "At the same time one of the greatest problems is neither Moscow nor Washington have yet been able to propose principles of bilateral relations that would suit both parties. In the game that is now on there are no common rules, and this is very dangerous for the whole world.
"In the current realities the events in Ukraine and the anti-Russian sanctions by the United States and the West in general have brought about a considerable role is played not by politicians, diplomats or analysts, but by the mass media. Current politics is largely shaped by media propaganda, which is utterly wrong," Kremenyuk said.
"Crisis management is a science. The Americans and Russians both may create their own mechanisms of crisis management. But there should be a common mechanism of managing crises just in case of a global disaster or a new terrorist threat. After all, Earth is one. It would be very wrong to permit a tail-wagging-dog situation, where events would control politicians, and not the other way round," Kremenyuk said.
"It is essential to streamline the process of drafting and adopting decisions, including those in relations between Russia and the United States. Decision-making should by means be placed in the hands of the bureaucrats, military, secret services, oligarchs and propagandists. The leaders must bear in mind a plurality of opinions, stay above the camarilla, come to terms with each other and ensure the proper machinery be in place to enforce decisions," Kremenyuk said. "A string of events that at a certain point will begin to dictate to Russia and the United States a certain mode of action should be avoided by all means."
"For the sake of future generations the Americans and Russians will have to make peace. After a year or two, three at the latest, when all of the current crises are gone, many common interests in politics, trade, the economy, and cultural cooperation and education programs will be brought to the fore. For this reason alone either party should be cautious enough so as not to step over the red line marking the point of no return.
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