MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. Russian MP Leonid Slutsky, chair of the State Duma foreign affairs committee, hopes that constructive cooperation will be eventually resumed between the Russian and US parliaments, he told reporters on Thursday.
"We do not give up hope that we will find a common denominator and cooperate in full, first of all, on such issues as global security and, certainly, the fight against international terrorism and drug trafficking," Slutsky said commenting on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s words at the annual news conference.
"We also hope to resume full-fledged inter-parliamentary cooperation. It is a format will could help settle many scores in current Russian-US relations," he said.
The senior Russian lawmaker is convinced that "one of the priorities is to get relations with the United States back to normal and make them constructive, including in a dimension of parliamentary diplomacy."
"Nonetheless, the level of relations between the Russian Federation and United States is much lower than during the Cold War," he said.
"The world’s two leading nuclear powers cannot enjoy the right of being in confrontation with each other," Slutsky said. "However, we are always facing anti-Russian sentiment in the US, in particular at the US Congress, and this is beyond any logic."
"The Russian president is absolutely right: after blaming Russia for all mortal sins and stringing it on the axis of evil, those people want us to help them solve the world’s topical issues, both North Korea and Iran," he said.
"You know it is strange, it is beyond common sense as our president said, and one cannot but agree with him," Slutsky concluded.
Earlier on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at his annual news conference that it is beyond common sense that the United States adds Russia to the US sanctions list along with North Korea and simultaneously urges Moscow to team up against Pyongyang’s nuclear weapon program.