Valdai Club

Cybersecurity is a pressing issue in bilateral relations. In order to interact efficiently in this area, it is important to break down the wall of misunderstanding in Russian-American relations, writes Valdai Club expert Pavel Sharikov.

Russia’s negative image as a “cyber aggressor” makes it more difficult for it to suggest arguments on the peaceful use of information technology to the Americans. The search for a common denominator is complicated by the fact that Moscow and Washington have completely different interpretations of interference, writes Valdai Club expert Pavel Sharikov.

Identity preservation has always been one of the core values of the United States. A nation that, like a quilt, has been woven over several centuries from immigrants of various ethnic backgrounds, has ensured that representatives of each of them, even in a relatively small number, will retain their identity, while remaining Americans.

The policy of the European Union aims to consolidate the information resources of its member countries. In general, this corresponds to a global trend towards the fragmentation and sovereignty of cyberspace. However, the case of the EU has unique specifics.

It is very important to understand that since the impeachment procedure has been started, some decision will be made on it in any case. If negative, then Donald Trump will receive a powerful vote of confidence in the upcoming elections, especially among doubting voters. The Democrats, in turn, will lose ground.

The members of the Squad have diverted the energy of Trump, who commonly makes mistakes when posts tweets. The four members of the House express rather radical political views and are subject to very harsh criticism from the Democratic Party establishment.

The announcement Trump made about his intention to seek a second term in office on Tuesday in Florida was more of a ceremony than a news item. He has collected funds and made preparatory work for the purpose, so there are no surprises. As for the prospects of his re-election, it is still too early to say at this stage of the American election campaign.

The election campaign of 2020 has already got underway. By early 2019, many Democrats who want to run in the 2020 elections had already declared their candidacies. Obviously, Trump intends to run for reelection. His success will depend on his ability to push through his initiatives in the face of Democratic resistance.

During the summit in Helsinki, Donald Trump said to Vladimir Putin that they would finally have an “extraordinary relationship”. However, The US President, chooses such wording often, so his numerous assistants try to lower it, figuratively speaking, to the ground afterwards. “I suppose no one has any lucid understanding of what this ‘extraordinary relationship’ means”, says Pavel Sharikov, Director of RAS Center for Applied Research of the Institute of USA and Canada in his interview to valdaiclub.com.

One year of Donald Trump in power revealed serious contradictions within the American society, presence of rather insurmountable differences between various political forces, and the extremely limited ability of the executive to resolve emerging problems. From the very beginning of the election campaign Trump positioned himself as an "un-systemic" candidate, violating grossly the long-standing traditions of the American political establishment.