MOSCOW, August 10 (Itar-Tass) - The break in the relations between the Russian Federation and the United States of America, which President Barack Obama called possible, is necessary to reconsider the bilateral relations and will be useful for both countries, Deputy Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of the US and Canada Valery Garbuzov said.
The break will be helpful “both to the Russian and to the American authorities in order to consider how strategically the relations between the two countries will develop,” he told audience of the Echo of Moscow radio station. He stressed neither side would be interested in a long break. “It is not to the interests of the Americans, at least because the president is limited by the four-year presidential term.” Over the remaining presidential time, Obama “is interested if not to rehabilitate the reloading, then at least to find a new inspiration and to expand the agenda,” the expert said. “I would like to hope that the visit /of Obama to Moscow/ is only postponed, not cancelled.” Garbuzov said most important issues, like the situation in Syria, could not be settled without cooperation between the two countries.
“Over past three years, especially during the previous one, the Russian-American relations have gained tension, and the case of Snowden is a boiling point, which went off,” he said.
On Friday, Obama told a news conference at the White House it is “probably appropriate for us to take a pause, reassess where it is that Russia is going ... and recalibrate the relationship.” As for the situation with Edward Snowden, the CIA’s former agent, the president called it another episode in the growing controversies of the past months. Among those the president highlighted the situation around Syria and the topic of human rights.