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Trump to organize foreign policy team in coming months, Lavrov says

The Russian top diplomat noted that at the moment "anticipation" is a perfect word describing the current state of relations between Moscow and Washington

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. The process of forming a new foreign policy team by the Trump administration whose advent will make it possible to talk about changes in relations with Russia will take a few more months, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Esquire.

"Anticipation," he said describing the current state of relations between Moscow and Washington. "Today everything is developing by inertia, because Obama’s people can still be found at the local level. We cannot start full-fledged work, as Trump’s team has not been formed yet."

According to Lavrov, this period could last fairly long. "Obama changed his team members for eight months after Bush. I do not think Trump will be able to do that faster," Russia’s top diplomat added.

The Russian top diplomat also noted that presently the situation in relations between Russia and the US is even tougher than during the Cold War era. "Undoubtedly, it’s tougher now," he said, adding that cooperation between the two powers in those years developed in accordance with certain rules.

"Two empires existed at that time - the Western and the Soviet ones. Each of them was fomenting conflicts with the adversary in third countries, but never on their borders and never directly," Lavrov went on to say. "Even the public rhetoric was softer. Both camps never crossed the red lines back then."

"There are no rules anymore today," the minister added.