A strengthened Democratic presence, Tercan said, could complicate matters for the president on the budget, sanctions against Russia, support for Ukraine, the judicial system and ambassadorial appointments.
The US midterm elections will not produce significant changes in the Trump administration's policy toward Russia, according to a Turkish specialist on international security quoted by TASS. Canan Tercan told the Russian state news agency that she does not expect radical shifts in President Donald Trump's relations with Russia and President Vladimir Putin, arguing that his foreign policy rests more on economic benefit, strategic partnership and personal diplomacy than on ideological division.
In Tercan's reading, Trump wants to keep channels of dialogue with Moscow open, restore areas of economic cooperation and bring the war in Ukraine to an end. She described his outlook as rooted in a drive for profit, pointing to Russian energy resources, Asia's mineral wealth and trade routes such as the Middle Corridor and the Northern Sea Route as offering Washington economic and geopolitical opportunities. She suggested a potential trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping would allow the three to discuss new economic and strategic balances.
The expert did not present this as an unqualified forecast. She acknowledged that the election results will affect Trump's room to manoeuvre. According to TASS, US media estimates put the Democrats on course for majorities in both chambers of the new Congress, where Republicans currently hold both the Senate and the House. A strengthened Democratic presence, Tercan said, could complicate matters for the president on the budget, sanctions against Russia, support for Ukraine, the judicial system and ambassadorial appointments.
She noted that Trump retains the right of veto, but anticipated intense negotiations with Congress rather than its routine use. In one illustration, she suggested Democrats might seek the lifting of sanctions on Russia in exchange for closed-door talks on reducing US tariffs on EU countries or flexibility on immigration. Trump, she said, may prefer compromise on certain issues to a veto.
The analysis is worth weighing carefully. It comes from a single commentator speaking to a Russian state outlet, and its claims about Democratic intentions on sanctions are speculative rather than reported fact. The article gives no vote totals, no confirmed final results and no statement from the White House or from congressional leaders. What it does convey is a reading, attributed to one expert, that personnel and legislative constraints may matter more than presidential preference in shaping Washington's Russia policy over the coming two years.
