Russia wants to change the negative trend in relations with the US, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said during the Fort Ross Dialogue forum.
"We want to change the negative trend in politics and economy. We will work in this direction," Ryabkov stressed. "It is important to get rid of all artificial things complicating cooperation and to remove numerous irritants in bilateral ties," the high-ranking diplomat pointed out.
At the same time, Ryabkov said that Russia is concerned as no serious breakthrough has been seen in Russian-US relations under Donald Trump’s administration,
The diplomat noted that under the previous US administration bilateral relations hit their lowest point. "But the new time period, contacts and cooperation with Trump’s administration saw no serious breakthrough. We are concerned about this," TASS cited Ryabkov as saying.
"We are ready to do our bit to revitalize bilateral relations. Certainly, a lot depends here on the line that the US side will take in relations with us," he noted.
Moscow has never done anything which could be considered as an attempt to influence Washington’s domestic policy, Ryabkov pointed out.
"We could never even think about interfering into the Unites States’ domestic affairs. We never did anything that could be considered as an attempt to influence domestic processes in the United States," Ryabkov said. "I am sure that many of you understand it perfectly well what could happen and what could not," he added.
According to Ryabkov, attempts by some members of the US establishment to use the Russian factor in connection with domestic policy cause significant concern. "This is a point of concern that still remains," Ryabkov stressed.
