Russia's Putin drops clues to future goals

Relations with the US

Russia was confronted in the past year with unstable relations with Western powers, especially the United States, and this eventually affected the country's political decisionmaking and put it in a difficult economic situation.

Vladimir Frolov, a political analyst at republic.ru, said Russia is not satisfied with the current global order in which the US plays a leading role.

To have Russia playing an increasing role in international affairs, the Kremlin has worked very hard on a proposed trip by Putin to Washington and also inviting Trump to Moscow for Russia-US summit talks, Frolov said.

He said the immediate priority of Russia in 2019 is to safeguard the US-Russia nuclear arms control regime, which is under threat by Trump's decision to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and his skepticism toward extending New START beyond 2021.

The INF Treaty was signed on Dec 8, 1987, and took effect on June 1, 1988. It outlawed deployed and non-deployed intermediate range (1,000 to 5,000 kilometers) and shorter range (500 to 1,000 km) groundbased missiles.

Trump said on Oct 20 that his country would quit the INF Treaty because Russia was allegedly in breach of that agreement. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov called it a "dangerous move".

Putin vowed on December 18 that his country would develop such missiles if the US leaves the INF Treaty.

Frolov said Russia might be forced to accept a plan suggested by US National Security Advisor John Bolton for a symbolic nuclear accord (like the Moscow Treaty of 2002) that would not limit deployment options.