Federation Council official speaks on current Russia-U.S. relations

Deputy Speaker of Russia's Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev assessed the current state of relations between Russia and the United States. He emphasized that the interaction between the two sides is affected by a whole range of international factors.

Kosachev noted that Russia-U.S. relations are affected by many factors in international politics, including the EU position.

"The core problem in Russia-U.S. relations is that they are not yet self-contained and are largely determined by external issues. Primarily, these are the Ukrainian dossier and the Russia-Europe crisis, while in the future, the China factor may begin to exert even greater influence," Konstantin Kosachev said.

He stressed that U.S. President Donald Trump had hoped to reset the relationship, as with many other international tracks, by clearing away the legacy of the previous administration. However, it turned out to be even more complicated than the Middle East conflicts.

The senator clarified that no "24-hour" or "two-week" scenarios worked, and the new U.S. administration had to immerse itself in negotiations on the Ukrainian conflict.

According to Kosachev, Donald Trump is trying to resolve everything that can be settled through agreements, but this runs counter to Europe's position. He added that all this seriously burdens Moscow-Washington relations, which truly could have been subjected to gradual revision and brought to a renewal of dialogue.

The Federation Council's Deputy Speaker pointed out that the U.S. perfectly understands that Russia is the only country in the world capable of inflicting irreparable damage upon it. At the same time, he noted that Russia has no reason whatsoever to do so.

He also expressed the opinion that dialogue would develop more easily when the countries establish genuinely bilateral ties, without "external impurities."

"Unfortunately, not much depends on us here, but I would like to acknowledge the efforts of our negotiators - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev, Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov, and others - who are doing everything possible to convey Russia's position to the U.S. side, including the central message: Russia is not America's enemy and has no objective reason to become one," Konstantin Kosachev said.

In his opinion, the U.S. can play a decisive role in eliminating the root causes of the Ukrainian conflict. Moscow is ready to assist in this to the fullest extent, the senator concluded.