On Monday in Moscow with official visit will arrive U.S. Secretary of the State Condoleezza Rice and the head of the U.S. Department of Defense Robert Gates. It is planed to meet with Vladimir Putin.

I do not think that here were taken some breakthrough fateful decision - in effect that the current U.S. president and will spend less than a year on his post. In such situation the president of America is called ‘lame duck’, and also his personal popularity rating is low. In these circumstances, a maximum of what can be expected from this meeting is that the parties agree not to take any steps that could further harm US-Russian relations. I do not see any issues on which the parties could on the basis of this meeting conclude convergence or agreement.

How do the USA behave to our president and tandem Putin-Medvedev&

It is hard to say. The point is that, the situation with the successor of the Russian Federation, Putin’s move to another high-ranking positions after the term as president, atypical for the United States, although there there are some political dynasties too, including the current president as an example. All this is well-known by the society, and Hillary Clinton is not a stranger for Bill Clinton. But our situation is seen in the United States as ambiguous. And there are ambiguous attitude to D.A. Medvedev. On the one hand, they regarded him as a successor of Putin as his continuer of his political course, but on the other hand – they lends themselves to illusory hopes that he is liberal and may go towards M.S. Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. It should be understood that the differences between the United States and Russia about democracy - it is actually the result of different approaches to democracy. For Russians, democracy is what the Russian people want, so Medvedev was chosen by stable majority. So there is no doubt that any democratic or what else would have such a result of the election. For the Americans - this is another story. For them, democracy is America itself. And all that is against America, by definition is authoritarian, undemocratic, and so on. Therefore, for Ahmadinizhada may vote majority of Iranians but he still in the eyes of Americans is a totalitarian despot. The same thing for Medvedev and Putin. Once they have a disaffection against “the Washington party” is perceived in America as being undemocratic.

There will be elections in the United States. What changes it will occur in relationship between United States and Russia?

I do not expect any positive breakthroughs after coming to power of the new American president. The situation may change, but at least at the present time, McCain has more chances unlike than his Democratic opponents, become a new American president.