Expert: Nerve agent attack won't impact Russian election

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It is only one day before the 2018 Russian presidential election, and the news is dominated by the UK's decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil.

Will this have an impact on the result of the March 18 poll? How can we evaluate President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy record? How could Russia and China better cooperate? CGTN reporter Bi Jianlu asked Vasiliy Kashin, senior research fellow at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies (CCEIS) in Moscow, for answers.

Vasiliy Kashin, senior research fellow at the CCEIS, talks to CGTN. /CGTN Photo

Nerve agent attack will barely impact Russian election

CGTN: Some media sources are saying that the UK's response to the recent nerve agent attack could have an unexpected effect on the Russian election. Do you agree?

Kashin: I don't think so, because it has been revealed in various polls that President Putin's position is already pretty strong. You cannot change this in any major way. Maybe there will be some minor influence, but I don't think it will be significant.

Personel take photographs as they swab railings near a bench covered in a protective tent at The Maltings shopping center in Salisbury, southern England, March 16, 2018, as part of an investigation into the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. /VCG Photo

Russia should look to the East more

CGTN: How do you evaluate Putin's international strategy?

Kashin: This is an effective strategy to protect Russian national interests in a situation where we are facing increased pressure from the United States and from the outside. I think that we need to be more proactive, and it is especially important that we start to pay more attention to relations with Asian countries. For example, in the 1990s and early 2000s, Russia was looking towards the European Union. Currently, this inbalance is being corrected.

China and Russia should adjust to new realities

CGTN: How can China and Russia better work together under the Belt and Road Initiative and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization mechanism?

Kashin: I think China and Russia need to create a new framework for our economic cooperation to represent our current reality, where we have constant sanctions and threats of trade wars from Western countries. We need to think about the protection of our markets, economic ties and financial ties.

May 14, 2017: Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing. /Xinhua Photo

Belt and Road Initiative best opportunity for China

CGTN also interviewed Alexander Druzhinin, research associate at the Higher School of Economics of the CCEIS, about the Belt and Road Initiative.

"It is a foreign policy initiative for China and for the world," said Druzhinin. "Chinese businesses and government will not impose any political will, and they do not take sovereign rights of individual countries like some Western countries."

He added that the initiative promotes peaceful coexistence, closer economic ties and people-to-people connections for a better global community. He thinks it is the best opportunity for China.

(Top photo: British Prime Minister Theresa May visits the city where former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury, England, March 15, 2018. /VCG Photo)

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