Hysteria in official Washington harming US-Russian relations, Kremlin spokesman says

WASHINGTON, March 7. /TASS/. Ongoing hysteria in official Washington and in the U.S. media is damaging US-Russian relations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the CNN on Monday.

"This is something unbelievable and I don’t actually think it corresponds with our national interests - I mean both interests of the US and Russia," he said.

Peskov refused to answer the interviewer’s question on whether or not it was wise enough of Donald Trump "to make Russia such a central part of his election campaign."

"Answering your question will mean that we interfere and we don’t have the slightest intention to interfere," he said. "The only thing I can tell is that all this hysteria in public opinion, hysteria in official Washington, hysteria in American media is doing lots of harm to the future of our bilateral relationship."

"Of course we’ll never agree on everything, we’ll continue our disagreements but the sooner we start to talk, the better for both countries," Peskov said. "I think it’s high time for someone in the (United) States so say, ‘Listen guys, let’s start to look at it from a different angle’."

He described the assertions about Russian hacking and attempts to meddle with the U.S. election system in order to influence the country’s future as something unimaginable.

"All that isn’t true," Peskov said.

When the interviewer asked him if Putin might feel some satisfaction right now looking at the chaos in U.S. politics and at how the former Cold War rival was "tearing itself to pieces politically", his answer was "Not at all."

"No one can ignore the importance of bilateral relationship with the U.S.," Peskov said. "It’s a very important country and it’s a global player number one, and it’s number one global economy and we’re all interested in a predictable, stable united America and so as for us, we’re interested in having a predictable partner, a predictable vis-a-vis for dialogue."

"Unfortunately, we don’t have a comfortable environment for the dialogue and of course it’s great pity," he said.

Peskov said the Kremlin felt really sorry about the fact Russia had become a topmost political issue in the U.S.

"We're really sorry about the situation that we are facing now. It is emotional extremism, of trying to make a toxic country out of Russia, to make a toxic (...) ambassador out of Russia's ambassador," he said.

Still he said he thought relations between Russia and the U.S. could recover.

"I think yes," Peskov said. "Let's not think in categories of one day, one month or even one year. Let's be a little bit more broad-minded. Let's be at least like our Chinese friends. They think about tens of years, hundreds of years, so inevitably we'll have our relationship normalized."