Russian-US relations may worsen during presidential election campaigns

Relations between the US and Russia may worsen during the next presidential election campaigns. As a Rosbalt correspondent reports, this was announced today by Sergei Rogov, director of the US and Canadian Studies Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He said that the Russian and US presidents will probably focus more on domestic problems in the lead-up to the elections next year in order to attract more votes. As a result, there will be a lull in foreign relations, during which new problems may appear, Mr Rogov said. At their upcoming meeting in the US the two presidents will probably agree on a plan of cooperation up until 2005 and this may help to avoid this period of inactivity.