Kremlin assesses Russia-U.S. ties

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there were certain channels for dialogue, one positive being that President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden have been in contact - the two spoke by phone on Saturday - but that ties in other areas were strained.

“The heads of state are in dialogue, there is dialogue on other fronts,” RIA Novosti cited Peskov as saying in an interview. “This is a plus because you know that just a couple of years ago there was zero dialogue, there were no such contacts whatsoever.

“But on the rest, unfortunately, in bilateral relations one can only talk about negatives. We are at a very, very low point. They are actually lying on the floor.”