Russian Foreign Ministry and State Department maintain contacts - Moscow

The Russian Foreign Ministry and the U.S. Department of State continue contacts quite actively, with no pauses or breaks, director of the ministry’s North Atlantic department Alexander Gusarov said.

"Contacts between the Russian Foreign Ministry and the U.S. Department of State continue quite actively. They have never been paused," Alexander Gusarov said.

The high-ranking Russian Foreign Ministry official recalled that in a comparatively short time in 2025, the dialogue led by Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Alexander Darchiyev and U.S. Deputy Assistance Secretary of State Sonata Coulter yielded a range of agreements that improved conditions for the staffing and daily operations of Russian and U.S. diplomatic missions, the Kommersant daily reported.

However, according to him, "the pace has somewhat slowed down since then."

"This can be explained by the fact that the sides have differing visions of the scope of a potential dialogue on irritants," Alexander Gusarov said.