MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump’s firm intention to send lung ventilators to Russia as part of coronavirus aid despite criticism is aimed at demonstrating power for his voters, the board chairman of the Foundation for the Development and Support of the Valdai International Discussion Club, Andrei Bystritsky, told TASS.

"Trump underlines in the eyes of his domestic audience in every possible way both his power and generosity. In a certain sense, this is the demonstration of power. After all, the United States has been severely hit by the coronavirus, but the authorities claim that they are strong enough and can handle this, and they have enough resources. In this sense, they say: "Yes, we are facing a difficult situation, but we are so good that we can help," he said.

According to Bystritsky, this Trump’s gesture comes in response to Russia’s humanitarian aid to the US, but the US president does not want to be obliged to anyone. "The Americans have their own national pride and they are very sensitive to this," the expert explained.

Trump seeks to hit several targets by this gesture, Bystritsky noted. At first, to show strength both to domestic and foreign audience and confirm US status of an independent state, which is free to act the way it wants to, and even to "prick" his opponents from the Democratic Party.

The expert also explained that Washington’s withdrawal from international agreements, including the Treaty on Open Skies, is an attempt to show its independence and free itself from the commitments, which the US president and the elite deem as tying their hands.

The US presidential election is approaching and opinion polls show that Trump’s success is in question and therefore he has to work in this direction, Bystritsky noted. "Trump understands that he cannot influence all his voters and he focuses on various parts of them. On the one hand, he announced the withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty, demonstrating negative attitude to many international agreements, and on the other hand he says that this does not hinder cooperation with countries. In many respects, he criticizes Russia, but on the other hand, he does not fully abandon dialogue. It seems to me that he expects some fluctuations among his voters and I believe that such a gesture as sending lung ventilators to Russia, in batches, has importance for Trump’s multi-vector construction especially ahead of the election," he said.

On Thursday, US C-17 military transport aircraft with first shipment of 50 US lung ventilators arrived in Moscow. Overall, the US plans to donate 200 lung ventilators. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier pointed out that the US is delivering the equipment free of charge, just like Russia previously did with lung ventilators for Washington. This decision has come under criticism of the US Democratic Party.