Russian leaders have cheered Barack Obama’s re-election but analysts do not expect any breakthroughs in relations between Moscow and Washington.
President Vladimir Putin took a “very positive view” of Mr. Obama’s victory in a message of greetings he sent to the US President, the Kremlin said.
“We express hope that the positive beginnings in bilateral relations and in international cooperation between Russia and the United States in the interest of global security and stability will continue to develop and improve,” said Dmitry Peskov, Mr. Putin’s press secretary.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who signed a new nuclear arms cut pact with the US during his presidency two years ago, praised Mr. Obama as an “understandable and predictable partner.”
“I am happy that the President of a very big, very influential state is not a man who considers Russia to be its enemy number one. That is ludicrous. It's some kind of paranoia,” Mr. Medvedev said.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, for his part, stressed the need for reciprocity in relations with the US.
“We are ready - on the basis of mutual equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect - to go as far as the US administration is willing to go,” he said.
Analysts, however, said the reset in Russian-American relations that began during Mr. Obama’s first term has run its course.
“The reset cannot go on because it was a one-time trading of interests. It was a success but it’s over and done with,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief of the Russia in Global Affairs journal.
“We have to devise a new agenda for our relations,” the analyst added, that would go beyond arms control.
