US sees Russia as adversary to be destroyed

The Russian leader needs to understand that the United States has no real intention of establishing friendly ties and would rather see Russia destroyed, says an analyst in Washington.

James Jatras, a former US Senate foreign policy analyst, told Press TV on Wednesday that Moscow had to change the mindset that one day Washington will be ready for a rapprochement.

He made the remarks while discussing statements by Russian Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov, who said earlier in the day that Moscow “regretted” the deterioration of ties between the two sides over US claims that Russia had interfered in its democratic affairs.

Several US congressional committees along with Special Counsel Robert Mueller have been investigating allegations of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and its “collusion” with the campaign of President Donald Trump.

“The Russians constantly refer to their American colleagues as their American partners, and they don’t seem to understand that the establishment here has no intention whatsoever of ever thinking of Moscow as a partner or as colleague,” Jatras said.

PressTV-Lavrov regrets growing East-West divisions

Russia’s Lavrov criticizes the West for pressuring states to turn away from Moscow.

“They look at them as an adversary to be destroyed,” he said of American leaders’ view of their Russian counterparts. “They think that they can treat them like Serbia or Libya or Iraq or Afghanistan.”

Jatras argued that Washington was looking forward to either force a regime change upon Russia or at least push it back from Syria and Ukraine.

He described as “absurd” claims by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who charged in an indictment last week that Russia was behind a hacking campaign that sought to change the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election.

According to Mueller’s indictment, two Russian entities Concord Catering, and Concord Management and Consulting were in control of the Internet Research Agency, a group that coordinated the alleged meddling by directing hacking attacks that exposed Democrats’ secrets.