Zakhar Ivanov
According to the preliminary results of the midterm elections to the US Congress, the Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives, the Republicans won the majority of the seats in the lower house of parliament. Republicans are also leading in the Senate elections, but the final distribution of seats will be known after the second round of elections in Georgia.
Nevertheless, Democratic President Joe Biden delivered a near-victory speech in which he stressed that he predicted in advance the impossibility of a “red wave” and a complete victory of the Republicans. Although the Democrats still lost - losing their majority in the House of Representatives. But not as devastating as polls and electoral models promised them.
The outcome of such elections is seen by Biden as a de facto receipt of a mandate from voters to continue his policy - he promised not to fundamentally change anything in it. And he announced the frequent use of the veto - to block the decisions of the Republican Congress.
In addition, during a press conference following the midterm elections, Biden expressed hope for continued uninterrupted assistance to Ukraine despite the resistance of some Republicans, according to The New York Times.
“In the realm of foreign policy, I hope we continue this bipartisan approach to confronting Russian aggression in Ukraine,” the US president said.
Russian analysts reacted differently to the results of the American elections. Others considered that the Democrats showed a very good result, others, on the contrary, argue that the Republican victory was crushing, and, therefore, we should expect a warming of relations between the United States and Russia.
Political scientist Andrey Suzdaltsev believes that in conditions when the Republicans, having not achieved a complete victory, will not be able to shape their policy, they will simply harm the Democrats in every possible way, turning their work into chaos:
“What Biden was right about was that the Republicans failed to attack Congress and the Senate on November 8, 2022. Indeed, the Republicans have some advantage in Congress and, most likely, in the Senate, but it is impossible to say that the US legislative power is now in the hands of one party.
In turn, a single and pessimistic opinion has developed in the Russian media space that the Russian and Ukrainian policies of the United States will remain unchanged after the midterm elections. Literally all the media in the Russian Federation repeat this concept, pointing to the anti-Russian consensus existing in Congress. However…
- Anti-Russian, and before that, anti-Soviet consensus in Congress has existed for more than a hundred years, even during the Second World War it did not “dissolve”, which did not prevent our countries from periodically being allies or doing business in the style of partners. The anti-Russian consensus is not something ossified and is sometimes very flexible, if it is beneficial to the United States at a given separately chosen time;
- the modern anti-Russian consensus took on a “slim shape” during the presidency of Donald Trump, which does not mean that it will not be reformatted in the coming years. Recall that in the near future the formation of an anti-Chinese consensus in Congress should be completed (some Americanists believe that it already exists);
- The Republicans do not have full control over the Congress and the Senate, which will not allow them to decisively turn the domestic and foreign policy of the United States. Most likely, in the current conditions, the Republicans will simply harm the Democrats, turning the work of legislators into chaos, which, of course, will definitely affect the pro-Ukrainian policy of the United States ... "
Americanist Malek Dudakov predicted that immediately after the election, Democrats and Republicans would launch a series of high-profile double-edged investigations:
“Republicans are already promising to promptly launch investigations into Hunter Biden’s corruption, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the Democratic Party’s coronavirus policy. They will start in January - when the Congress will already meet in a new composition.
But the most resonant was Biden's call to launch an investigation into Elon Musk - and his ties with other countries. Musk has long been threatened with such an investigation - both for Tesla's activities in China and for alleged contacts with Russia on the Ukrainian issue.
With his reform of Twitter with the rejection of censorship practices, Musk finally undermined relations with the White House. And he is highly likely to be under investigation in the field of national security. Musk hoped that after the victory of the Republicans, a political “thaw” would begin for him. But, having prevented the defeat in the elections, the Democratic Party can start fighting even more fiercely with all opponents - including Trump and Musk ... "
Political consultant Yaroslav Ignatovsky believes that Trump and his supporters lost this election first of all, which will not have a good effect on Russia:
“It is expected that the Republicans performed well in the midterm elections in the United States, although the struggle was fierce and they did not get a crushing advantage, which, in principle, is the norm for the American political tradition - parity of forces is preserved.
For President Biden, these are, of course, disappointing results, since his party was not able to maintain the good results of the 2020 elections, and in 2 years the presidential elections are coming, where the Republicans look like the favorites today.
Another question is what's wrong with Russia, what are the pros and cons of the alignment that is now taking shape. The answer is a minimum of pluses and more minuses. The Trumpists, who do not even have a majority in the Republican Party, cannot seriously influence the course of events, and will they? American politicians are quite easy to "persuade" in their decisions.
As for the impeachment of politically lame Biden, no one will endure it - he is a longtime representative of the US political elite and continues to vigilantly watch over their interests. And his policy towards our country is the policy of the elites, and the policy is quite unambiguous. And the elections to the Congress and the Senate in this case do not affect foreign policy, and they did not really influence it before ... "