What Stands in the Way of Russia-US Rapprochement Under Trump?

Following Wednesday's meeting between Lavrov, Kyslyak and Trump, Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov said that the Kremlin was 'cautiously optimistic' over the meeting.

"It's too early to draw any conclusions. Of course, the very fact that dialogue is conducted is very positive," Peskov said. The spokesman added that a lot of work remains to be done ahead of the expected meeting between Presidents Putin and Trump in Hamburg in July.

A White House press release on the meeting said that Trump had "emphasized his desire to build a better relationship between the United States and Russia," and stressed that the president had "raised the possibility of broader cooperation on resolving conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere." 

At the same time, the statement said that Trump told Foreign Minister Lavrov that Washington would continue to play a role in working to resolve the Ukraine conflict, and would pressure Moscow over Russia's responsibility to implement the Minsk agreements on peace in eastern Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly emphasized that it is not a party to the Ukrainian conflict, and that Kiev officials are the ones responsible for stalling the implementation of the peace agreements.

Soon after the meeting between Lavrov, Kislyak and Trump took place, the US mainstream media lost its collective mind over the fact that a Russian photographer was the only journalist present at the meeting, and that the US side released no official images from the event.

The media hype was only exacerbated by the fact that less a day before the meeting, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who was conducting an investigation into (thus far unsubstantiated) claims of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

Speaking to Russia's RIA Novosti news agency, Peter Kuznick, a professor of history and director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University in Washington, D.C., explained that in the face of resistance from the media and extremely influential US politicians, it has been very difficult for President Trump to build any sort of dialogue with Russia.

"Trump has very little room for maneuver when it comes to building relations with Russia, precisely because both the media and a majority of politicians oppose dialogue with Russia," Kuznick said.

At the same time, the academic emphasized that whatever difficulties there are on the path to normalizing relations, "we must step onto this path in order to reduce the existing tensions."

"For a while, it seemed that there was even the possibility of a war between our countries, given the backdrop of the military conflicts in Ukraine and in Syria," Kuznick added.

But hopes and good wishes aside, the academic also warned the Russian side against any sort of unconditional trust in Trump.

"When Trump was running for president, he said a lot of positive things about Russia, about the Russian president," Kuznick recalled. This probably gave many in Russia hope for some positive changes in relations between Moscow and Washington. 

"He was elected, but did not follow through with what he had said during the election campaign. As president, he often does the opposite [of what he promised]. And this was something that I warned my friends in Russia against: do not believe Trump's words, even if what he says sounds extremely promising."