MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. Washington’s efforts to make up a major anti-Russian coalition have failed, Russian State Secretary, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said at the Federation Council on Monday.
“Despite the unprecedented efforts, Washington has failed to knock together a major anti-Russian coalition,” the diplomat said. “We’ve maintained an equal respectful dialogue on a wide range of issues with most of the states and have even boosted it with several countries,” the official said.
Russia will not discuss sanctions, the first steps ought to be made by those who put the sanctions in place, Karasin added.
According to him, no sanction criteria will be discussed. Karasin added that the western sanctions against Russia “contributed to the development of foreign economic contacts with other countries.".
The diplomat pointed out that the situation in the world worsened significantly last year as the United States and the historic West tried at any cost to keep teaching by force.
On the situation in Ukrane
The deputy foreign minister said the developments in Ukraine serve as an evident example of what may happen after “the introduction of radical nationalism against the background of outside geopolitical influence.
“It’s obvious that the bankrupt political elite in Kiev is incapable of uniting the country on a consolidating basis and is more and more tending to choose bloodshed instead of a real dialogue opportunity,” the official said.
“The Americans have been giving advice to [Ukrainian President] Poroshenko and [Ukrainian Prime Minister] Yatsenyuk already for a long time. US Vice-President Biden is in talks with Kiev top officials nearly on a daily basis. Escalation, new bloodshed usually take place after them,” he said.
The official added that Kiev is trying to return to the military solution of the Ukrainian conflict but these attempts are doomed to fail.
“We urge to establish a direct dialogue between Kiev and militias,” Karasin told the upper house of parliament.
He said Moscow is ready for talks in any format, but the Contact Group on Ukraine is optimal.
“Representayives from Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk are to gather for a meeting in the days to come. We hope this meeting will take place,” Karasin said.
When asked whether the level of representation at Contact Group talks would be changed, the Russian diplomat noted that “the level of such dialogue is a separate subject.” “The Contact Group implies discussion of practical issues between representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk and Kiev with mediation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and our ambassador to Ukraine,” he noted.