Experts: Snowden issue doesn't impact Russian-American relations

The situation around former CIA technical contractor Edward Snowden does not affect Russian-American relations and can hardly seriously deteriorate them, experts said. They took part in a round-table meeting on the “Snowden case” on Monday. “I’d advice Washington to forget about Snowden as we forgot the names of our turncoats,” said Vladimir Kozin, aide to the director of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies. Such unsolved problems as missile defense, the signing of a new CEF Treaty and U.S. bases remain in force in Russian-American relations, Kozin said. Assistant to the dean of the Moscow State University World Politics Department Andrei Sidorov said Russian-American relations were not too significant to make the Snowden situation to cause serious damage to them. “Mutual interest is minimal and it is rather difficult to build relations on this basis,” the expert said. Snowden’s decision to receive temporary asylum to Russia was the serious failure for the United States. Washington tries to forget about it as soon as possible, director-general of the Centre for Political Information Alexei Mukhin said. “Both Russia and the United States seek to settle the situation,” he said. Experts left open the possibility that the uproar around Edward Snowden could be one of the reasons for postponing the visit to Moscow by U.S. President Barack Obama slated for the beginning of September. However, they said this was highly improbable. “I believe that Obama should attend the G-20 summit in St Petersburg and the meeting in Moscow. Our countries take special responsibility for international security,” Kozin said.