Nixon centre president: Washington’s fears with regard to Russia were unfounded

Washington has started to understand that its fears with regard to Russia were unfounded. This opinion was expressed by Dimitri Simes, a prominent politologist, president of the Nixon Centre. According to him, the Russian President is strong, active and is taking steps which are well understood and accepted in the USA. Speaking in New York at the conference "Investments in Russia and the CIS," Dimitri Simes underscored in particular: It is practically impossible today to imagine a conflict between America and Russia, but the relations between the two countries should become more stable and predictable. In his opinion, the new US administration is less ideologised and more pragmatic, which gives the ground to hope for a stable and predictable policy towards Russia. Touching upon relations between the financial quarters of the USA and Russia, Dimitri Simes pointed out that the American investors, having lived through the difficulties of the 1998 crisis in Russia, are not in a hurry to return there now. He explains this partly by controversy of some actions of the Russian power structures, by the declarative nature of the legislative acts being taken and by the absence of a serious support of the investment climate on the state level, RIA Novosti reports. At the same time Dimitri Simes has admitted that the present internal political situation in the USA does not contribute to the development of investment, trade and economic contacts with Russia. Appointments to the high posts in charge of concrete aspects of American-Russian relations have not yet been made in the new US administration.