U.S.-Russian relations risk to be improved at expense of others - ambassador
KYIV. Oct 15 (Interfax) - Among U.S. politicians there are advocates of the idea of building the Washington-Moscow relations at the expense of paying less attention to Central and Eastern European countries, including Ukraine, Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oleh Shamshur said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.
"One can understand the desire by the new U.S. presidential administration to improve, to make the relations with Russia more pragmatic," Shamshur said.
The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has reassured the Central and Eastern European countries that the improvement of its relations with Russia will not hurt its relations with these countries, he said.
"However, on the other hand, I would like to note that as ambassador I am certainly concerned not by the administration's policy but by the growing influence of the U.S. politicians from the so-called 'school of realpolitik'," Shamshur said.
Part of this approach consists in building the relations with Russia at the expense of the diminished focus on Central and Eastern Europe, he said.
"To what extent will it affect the formation of the administration's real course? Given the statements made by all foreign-policy officials from the Obama administration, I hope it will not affect it seriously. However, the danger does exist, it certainly is there," said the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S.
