New US ambassador to Russia will be bound by difficult bilateral relations, expert says

Valery Garbuzov

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/: A newly appointed US ambassador to Russia will be bound by the difficult relations between Russia and the USA, Director of the Institute for US and Canada Studies under the Russian Academy of Sciences Valery Garbuzov told TASS on Thursday.

"Due to the circumstances around the relations between our states, any ambassador’s hands will be tied," he said. "If the relations were unblocked, an ambassador would be able to show their worth."

The expert reminded that any ambassador would follow the directives of the president. "It may sound obvious and simplistic, but former ambassador Jon Huntsman did not succeed in doing this. And he’s the least to blame for that. The general bilateral atmosphere is negative, which stands in the way of the ambassador implementing his diplomatic duties," Garbuzov said.

According to him, "no matter who the next ambassador will be, we should not expect significant achievements from them until the Russian-American relations improve in general."