This was reported in comments for Ukrinform by an expert on international relations, a lecturer at the Lazarski University in Warsaw, Michal Kuz, who emphasized that Russia’s inflated expectations will lead to its failure in the negotiations.
“By entering the negotiation process, Russia is stalling for time, and President Trump is beginning to lose patience, seeking to achieve concrete diplomatic success and increasing pressure [on Russia and its allies],” the expert noted.
According to him, Putin is forced to participate in negotiations with Washington under the threat of sanctions, including against countries actively trading with Russia, which could lead to India, for example, stopping buying large volumes of oil from Russia.
Therefore, as Kuz emphasized, Russia is forced to resort to diplomatic maneuvers to buy time. However, this is unlikely to lead to a significant breakthrough or a positive outcome for it.
“In my opinion, in a sense, the Greek tragedy is endless, where Russia is doomed due to inflated expectations. Why such expectations? Because Russia lives by its imperial past, considers itself a superpower and views itself as an equal partner of the United States, although on an economic level it is not an equal partner even for Germany,” the expert noted.
He added that Russia is a superpower only in the context of its nuclear potential, but not in economic terms, and for Trump, as a businessman, the economy takes priority over military power.
“Thus, in negotiations for the US, Russia is a vassal, not an equal partner,” the expert believes.
Kuz noted that Trump has already been disappointed twice by Russia’s intransigent position and is now making a third attempt. And if that also fails, his sympathy [for Putin] could quickly transform into hatred.
“As far as I know, we are talking about a kind of destructive pride on the part of Russia, which in Greek is called “hubris” [arrogance, conceit, inflated self-esteem]. This leads to the Russian elite suffering from a chronically distorted perception of reality regarding Russia’s position on the international stage. Regardless of the tactics used by the Russians, they will always have inflated expectations (compared to their real capabilities) in negotiations with superpowers like the United States. And they will always suffer defeat, regardless of who represents their interests in the negotiations,” Kuz emphasized.
He added that although most Russians and part of the Russian elite consider Russia a superpower, this is not true: in terms of economic indicators, it is located between Spain and South Korea.
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