MOSCOW, October 2. /TASS/. Relations between Russia and the US may enter "a new phase of abnormal relationship" after Donald Trump leaves office as US president, American journalist and International Secretary of the American Communist Party (ACP) Christopher Helali told TASS in an interview follwoing the Dialogue about Fakes 4.0 international forum.

"I'm not so sure if they can normalize [relations]. Maybe there can be some level of normalization that already exists between contacts at different levels. For example, under the Biden presidency, there was not even contact. There were no calls between Washington and the Kremlin. There was no dialogue between the heads of intelligence. For example, like when [Central Intelligence Agency Director John] Ratcliffe came to Moscow to meet with the head of the SVR [Sergey Naryshkin]. That didn't happen at the time of Biden. Now we have it here at this point. So it's a little bit normal, you could say. But for example, we don't have direct flights. We still have issues with logistics, communication and import export. We don't even have a postal connection," he noted.

The journalist pointed out that he is pessimistic about the improvement of Russia-US relations. "I'm more pessimistic because I believe that what we will end up seeing is a situation where the United States will talk a lot. They will maintain contacts [with Russia through] [US leader’s son-in-law Jared] Kushner, [special presidential envoy Steve] Witkoff, and everybody else. However, it won't translate into political action because of the situation in the US domestically. <…> And if Trump leaves office, I think we could be entering a new phase of an abnormal relationship with Russia," Helali concluded.

The Dialogue about Fakes 4.0 forum took place on September 22 in Moscow. The forum is organized by the Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN), established in 2025 by the TASS news agency, the autonomous nonprofit organization "Dialogue Regions," and the Media Workshop. TASS is the forum’s strategic media partner.