Putin 'issues warning' on US relations

Experts: Breakdown of the global arms control system will have consequences

The annual news conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday sent strong signals to the United States on their future relations, but also showed confidence in Russia's economic prospects, experts said.

Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies of the Higher School of Economics in Russia, said Putin hoped the US could understand that the breakdown of the global arms control system was fraught with very dangerous consequences.

The Russian expert said a serious Russian-US dialogue on issues concerning stability is important.

Speaking earlier in the day, the Russian president warned against lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, emphasizing that this would trigger a global disaster.

The Russian leader noted that the global deterrence system is going to pieces. Russia is not interested in fueling an arms race but only wants to keep the balance of forces, he said.

"The president sent the US a signal that its deliberate actions to dismantle what has remained of the arms control system without offering something to replace it is fraught with very dangerous consequences," Suslov said.

He said both Russia and the US have some confrontational relations and these relations may heighten the threat of a nuclear war, however, Putin's news conference demonstrated Russia remains open to dialogue.

Wu Fei, a researcher at the Center for China and Globalization, said despite some small conflicts, Russian-US relations will ease up, and the disagreement will not become a major problem for the future bilateral relationship.

Li Yonghui, a senior researcher of Russian foreign policy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that a new normal for Russia-US relations will be co-existence based on competition and confrontation.

"Russia hasn't shut the door to easing up relations with the US, but inside the US, there are some hostile emotions toward Russia," she said.

"Even though US President Donald Trump wants to improve the bilateral relationship, competition and confrontation will still be there."

Russia's GDP from January to October grew by 1.7 percent year-on-year, Putin said at the news conference. The whole-year growth for 2018 is expected to be 1.8 percent, he said.

According to Russia's Federal Statistics Service, the country's GDP grew 1.5 percent in the first nine months of the year.

Economic growth

Putin praised the economic growth, saying that the government will be able to ensure a growth rate above 3 percent from 2021.

Wu said that he is quite optimistic about Russia's economic development, as Russia's economy is in a virtuous cycle, and it is very important that the growth is stable and the economic growth will benefit all people.

He said that Russia has good industrial foundations, and most resources are centered on Moscow, so the economic efficiency of the country could be very good.

Even so, Li said Russia's economy will still be affected greatly by energy prices.

Russia has been suffering from an economic recession since 2014 due to Western sanctions and low oil prices. The economy was back on track in 2017 when GDP growth rose 1.5 percent year-on-year, according to the Russian statistics service.

"Russia should also make big efforts in innovation in various sectors of economy, including the digital economy, the financial sector and the development of dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises," she said.

He Wenping, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the economic diversification of Russia has seen great progress in the past few years and global oil prices are gradually recovering, which will help trigger the stable development of the Russian economy.