MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. Agreements are unlikely to be reached at the upcoming Russia-US summit in Geneva, Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters, adding, however, that he looked at the summit "with practical optimism."
"I am not sure that any agreements will be reached, we’ll see, I don’t know. I look at the meeting with practical optimism but I don’t have great optimism," he said.
"This is the first meeting that is going to take place amid the highest tensions between the two countries. I think both parties realize that it’s time to start cleaning up the mess," the Russian presidential aide emphasized. According to him, any agreements that could be reached at the summit "will represent a compromise" and will benefit bilateral relations. "And then, it will be up to us [the administrations — TASS], experts, the foreign policy agencies and other institutions to work to implement the instructions that the presidents will hand down during the talks," the Kremlin aide said.
Ushakov pointed out that "preparations were fairly successful" and "quite a substantive agenda was agreed on."
When asked if the United States had softened its rhetoric towards Russia ahead of the summit, Ushakov said: "New sanctions were introduced in April, and we are in early June. Has it softened or not? As for strategic stability, the decision to extend an important treaty (New START — TASS] is a positive thing. However, there also are negative things," the Russian presidential aide stressed.
When speaking about Putin’s meetings with previous US presidents, Ushakov noted that "the Americans tend to ignore agreements reached under the previous administration, particularly if that administration was dominated by another political party."