WASHINGTON, June 7. /TASS/. The relations between Moscow and Washington will hardly improve after the presidential election in the US, with the situation around Ukraine and the West’s actions regarding Russia’s frozen assets to be the main factors influencing the bilateral ties, John Kavulich, a US political analyst, told TASS.

He commented on statements made by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with heads of global information agencies, an event organized by TASS, which took place on June 5 on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). In particular, Putin stated that the American policy regarding Moscow would not change after the US presidential election. "President Putin is correct if he is referencing whether the bilateral relationship will be better because the distance from where it is today and where it should be is separated by a vast political ocean," Kavulich who is president of the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, said.

"The bilateral relationship can get worse and quickly if either government wants it to do so. The degree of better will be directly connected with the status of the Russian Federation-Ukraine war. A movement towards an end to the military conflict, meaning the political conflict may remain, would provide momentum to improve the bilateral (and multilateral) relationship," according to the expert who attended the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

"However, and there is always a 'however,' issues relating to the use of (and/or return of) the approximately $320 billion in assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, which have been frozen outside of the Russian Federation, will be immensely challenging," he noted. Whoever wins the upcoming presidential election, Democrat Joe Biden or Republican Donald Trump, for both of them the presidential term that will start in January 2025, will be the final one, Kavulich stressed. In this respect the political struggle between politicians that would be able to run for the presidential office at the 2028 vote, will intensify.

Amid this background "the United States Congress will be the primary catalyst for the contours of the United States-Russian Federation bilateral relationship" during the rule of the new American president, he concluded.