Russia is willing to work on improving relations with the new US administration — even if American sanctions aren’t lifted any time soon.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that relations between Moscow and Washington are at their “lowest point” and that there were “completely different ways of normalizing them.”
“Certainly, sanctions are an element that very negatively affect bilateral relations, but still even under the backdrop of sanctions, Moscow would, undoubtedly, welcome any prospect for dialogue and it is ready for that,” he was quoted as saying by state news agency Tass.
Relations between Russia and the United States have deteriorated over the past year as the two nations have stood on opposing sides of the Syria conflict and locked horns several times at the UN Security Council over the nearly six-year war.
Washington has also accused Russia of interfering with the US election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee’s emails and leaking details to the public.
The Obama administration has described Russia’s involvement as “Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities” and sanctioned four Russian individuals and five Russian entities for what it said was election interference. The administration also ordered 35 Russian diplomats to leave the country and two Russian compounds are being closed.
On Monday, Russia said that US allegations that it engaged in hacking during the American presidential election were “unfounded” and amounted to nothing more than a “full-scale witch hunt.”
Peskov also confirmed to reporters Monday that a meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin “is going to take place” but did not give a timeframe for such an encounter.
Asked to comment on the breakdown between Moscow and Washington, Peskov said he regretted the way the two nations had distanced themselves.
While Putin and Obama’s relationship has worsened, there is plenty of mutual admiration between the Russian President and Trump.
It is on that basis that Russia is hoping that a new era between the two will be ushered in.
“We can only express our deepest regret that the second term of Mr. Obama’s presidency unfortunately saw a period of a rather unprecedented and prolonged deterioration in our bilateral relations,” Peskov added..
“At the same time, we still hope that in one way or another we will have the opportunity to embark on a more positive trajectory for building our relations with the US.”
