MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. Brazil’s President Michel Temer may visit Russia this year, Brazilian Ambassador to Russia Antonio Luis Espinola Salgado said at talks with the head of the Russian upper house’s international affairs committee on Monday.

"This year... a visit of Brazil’s president to the Russian Federation is very likely," the diplomat told Konstantin Kosachev.

The ambassador also said that a domestic crisis hitting Brazil last year had a negative effect on cooperation with other states, including Russia. "This was a year of frustrated hopes," he said, expressing hope that this year the sides will be able to make up for the lost time.

According to the diplomat, consultations between the two countries’ foreign ministries are expected shortly, as well as a meeting of the intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation.

On August 31, 2016, Brazil’s Senate voted to impeach Dilma Rousseff, earlier suspended as the country’s president, but she retained the right to work at state institutions.

Michel Temer, the former Vice President, assumed office for a period until December 31, 2018. According to Temer, the policy of Roussef resulted not only in political turmoil in the country, but also triggered a most serious economic crisis.

Alleged financial fraud during the first months of Rousseff’s second term in office was the impeachment motive. Opponents accused Rousseff of signing several decrees on the allocation of state funds without prior consultations with parliament and delaying payments to state banks. The opposition considered this as an attempt to conceal the budget deficit. 

Cooperation projects 

Brazil is also keen on developing multifaceted cooperation with Russia, including space, defense and scientific cooperation, Luis Espinola Salgado has added. 

The Russian senator noted that the two countries had many spheres of mutual interests which provided ground for "more close relations." In this regard, Kosachev mentioned "space research, machine building and the power industry." "We have huge potential as far as bilateral cooperation in concerned, we can complement each other in many ways, first and foremost, in agriculture as well as in the power industry, particularly, in the nuclear power industry," the Brazilian ambassador noted. "Without a doubt, we intend to further develop space and defense cooperation," he added.

The Brazilian diplomat went on to say that last week he had had talks with President of the Skolkovo Foundation Viktor Vekselberg on the prospects of scientific and technical cooperation between Brazil and Russia. "I got a feeling that we would be able to implement a number of planned projects," Salgado concluded.

Russia and Brazil have been cooperating in space research on a bilateral basis as well as within the BRICS association (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). In April 2016, the two countries signed a contract on installing a Russian optoelectronic complex, aimed at detecting space debris, in a Brazilian observatory. In November 2016, it was announced that the Russian Canopus satellite would become part of a joint Earth Remote Sensing Satellite Group set up by BRICS countries.