President of the United States Donald Trump can meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Russian political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin writes on the NW portal.

The first. Russia is a noticeable element of the political landscape. And at least in two points the interests of Russia and the US overlap. One is the DPRK, which the United States wants to reason with economic sanctions, and Russia considers it necessary and beneficial to oppose the US in all its endeavors. Here, the mythology of Russian geopolitics is mixed, and Putin's personal grievances on Trump, to which he as though helped with all his might, and now is in the reds - huge reputational costs for Putin's regime. Although, of course, official rhetoric does not recognize them.

And the second point is Syria. The problem is clear: Putin went in there to force him to talk to him, because before that there was nothing to talk about with him. And here he recorded himself as a political player. But now the problem is different: the military (the simplest task) is partly solved. The most difficult political. If Russian troops leave there - and Shoigu, and private military companies - then in six months Assad will not, and everyone understands this. It will be destroyed by the opposition. Or in any case, reduce its influence to microscopic dimensions. The territory will fall under the control of the opposition, working more likely on the US than on Russia.

Therefore, after the destruction or radical weakening of the Islamic state, the conflict may enter a new phase: Putin will want to secure his geopolitical dominion, and Trump his. They will have to divide this territory, relatively speaking, like Poland between Hitler and Stalin. If you want, you do not want to, but with Putin you have to negotiate. Because if there are no agreements, then the opponents of Assad will continue to fight with the dictator, and Putin's security forces will continue to fight with them, plus problems with Turkey, the Kurds, Iraq. Russia has climbed up, but can not get out, because it puts on Assad, and Assad without support from the outside will not hold. Of course, Russia can support Iran, which in turn will help Assad. And the US is oriented toward Israel and against Iran, and against Assad. Therefore, they will have to agree on where the line will pass on the map. That Putin and Trump have something to talk about. And in this sense, regardless of whether Trump has a problem with the legitimacy of his election with the help of Russian hackers, or not, and it still needs to be negotiated.

I believe that Trump's position was toughened after all these investigations. Any weakness manifested on his part can be interpreted by competitors as the fruits of Trump's agreement or dependence on Putin, which de facto does not already exist. It turned out exactly the opposite: Putin believed that Trump would be afraid to quarrel with Russia, since the latter has dirt on Trump. But the dirt was and is already merged - everyone knows that the Russian Federation helped Trump, interfering in the elections, so now there is no opportunity to keep him on a short leash. So the task of Trump is to demonstrate rigor in relation to Russia, so that all charges, depending on Putin, are discarded. As is often the case with Putin's stratogems, the Kremlin got the result opposite to what it wanted:

he wanted to take care of Hillary Clinton and lead Trump, but having done this, he got the US and the president even more inclined against Russia than the rational cold-blooded Clinton.

Putin really needs this meeting. He also does not understand what to do with Syria. To bomb the IG - done. And what to do with this territory? Who occupies it? Who controls the pipelines that go along it? There is much to talk about, but of course there will not be much love, on the contrary - on the part of Trump, a tough agenda.