MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. The upcoming presidential election in the United States will not lead to an improvement of relations with Russia, but it may have an impact on the policy towards Ukraine, Ivan Timofeev, the general director of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), told TASS on the eve of the international conference Russia and China: Cooperation in a New Era.

"I believe that fundamentally US-Russian relations will not benefit from the US election. The election’s effects may have only a negative impact. It remains to be seen whether the effect is more negative or less negative. But I don't see the slightest chance of an improvement," he pointed out. "I think the change of the administration in Washington is more important for the US attitude to Ukraine. Most likely, Joe Biden will continue his military and financial support for Kiev. A different president may at least try to reconsider certain aspects, if not radically."

The RIAC chief described Ukraine is an "expensive project" for which "60 billion dollars is now being allocated."

At the same time, he pointed out that the US has its own problems: "A taxpayer might ask why Ukraine enjoys priority, and not roads or bridges, not social security or job creation and so on. What is the point of such spending?"

"In the past hundreds of billions of dollars was wasted in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now mammoth funds are being wasted in Ukraine. Where are the concrete results? The further the crisis goes, the more difficult it will be for the American authorities to present an account," Timofeev said.

He also drew attention to the illusion arising every 4 years that the presidential election in the US "will change something."

"Back during the rule of George W. Bush, everyone said that a new president would come and things would get better. This did not happen. There is a well-trodden path in American foreign policy that presidents find hard to abandon. There is a legislative framework, which is also difficult for leaders to change," he emphasized.

In this regard, the RIAC head also recalled how former US President Donald Trump said that he would establish relations with the Russian leader.

"But he did not succeed in achieving anything. Moreover, he took all the anti-Russian steps that Congress dictated to him. And in a number of respects Trump has shown himself as a rather anti-Russian politician," Timofeev stated.

About US election

The US presidential election will be held on November 5. Former US President Donald Trump has already gained the necessary number of delegate votes to be nominated as the Republican candidate. The incumbent, Joe Biden, running for a second term, has secured the support of a sufficient number of delegates from the Democratic Party. The clash will predictably unfold between the same candidates as four years ago, when Biden outperformed Trump.