U.S. analyst: U.S. will not trade principles for closer relations with Russia
President Barack Obama makes remarks about innovation and jobs, Thursday, July 2, 2009, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. AP

U.S. analyst: U.S. will not trade principles for closer relations with Russia

July 04 at 15:05 | Interfax-Ukraine
The policy of U.S. President Barack Obama is very different from that of his predecessor, George W. Bush, but the United States will not radically change its foreign policy for the sake of better relations with Russia, said David Kramer, a leading U.S. analyst.

During his planned visit to Moscow next week, Obama will pay serious attention to issues of democracy and human rights in Russia, said Kramer, an expert at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor.

One of the most sensitive points of Russian-U.S. relations is the American policy on Russia's neighbors, Kramer argued. However, the United States has not seen nor will see its relations with those countries through the prism of its relations with Russia, Kramer told Interfax.

The United States will by no means sacrifice its close ties with Ukraine and Georgia in order to "reset" its relations with Russia, Kramer said.

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