A thaw in US - Russia relations?
Russian media are delighted about the friendly words that have passed between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Putin thanked his US counterpart on Sunday for the CIA's reported help in thwarting an attack in St. Petersburg. A group of men with ties to the IS is said to be behind the planned attack. Can the incident help break the ice between the two countries?
Bound together by a common enemy
Russia and the US have what it takes to stand side by side in difficult times, Radio Kommersant FM points out:
“Can we now hope for improved relations, or will this remain an isolated incident? ... Both sides understand that things can't get any worse and that somehow or other the tensions must be defused, otherwise who knows what will happen. ... Now things can only get better - and that's what both sides wanted to demonstrate. However that's no guarantee that that's how things will turn out. What we have at present are good intentions, no more than that.”
Any chance for a rapprochement is welcome!
There's something fishy about the CIA purportedly having helped prevent a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg, journalist Anton Orech writes in Echo of Moscow:
“Strange that the CIA knows better than we do what's going on in apartments where conspiracies are being plotted in St. Petersburg. We're all paranoid: if it knows that, it knows everything about us! Today it helps us, tomorrow it will do something nasty to us! ... This story is murky, to say the least. But it's positive! ... I'm happy about every good word Russia says about America and that America says about Russia. Even if the reason for all the thanks and friendship is pure fiction. Because we've already had our fill of fictitious reasons for hatred and bad blood. ... The important thing now is that the terrorists turn out to be real, and that no innocent souls end up behind bars for the sake of the Russian-American friendship.”