Report: Obama says Russia’s weakening poses risks for US

MOSCOW, Feb 11 (PRIME) -- Russia’s weakening will be bad for the U.S., as there is concern that the country in a crisis will revert to old expansionist ideas, U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview with news portal BuzzFeed on Wednesday.

“That’s bad for Russia and, over time, it’s bad for the United States, because if Russia is doing badly, the concern is that they revert to old expansionist ideas that really shouldn’t have any application in the 21st century,” Obama said.

The president hopes that Russia will take a diplomatic offering concerning the Ukrainian conflict.

“You know, I continue to hold out the prospect of Russia taking a diplomatic offering from what they’ve done in Ukraine. I think, to their credit, they’ve been able to compartmentalize and continue to work with us on issues like Iran’s nuclear program,” he said.

Obama believes that problems of the Russian economy, including modernization, slowed down before the oil prices fall.

“But, if you look at what’s happened to the Russian economy, even before oil prices collapsed, it is not an economy that’s built for the 21st century. Unfortunately, those forces for modernization inside of Russia, I think, have been sidelined,” he said.

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