MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. Russia wants dialogue with the United States to be more intense, constructive and it shouldn’t stumble over Washington’s aggressive statements, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
"We maintain permanent contacts with our US colleagues, we have dialogue," the diplomat said. "Another case is that we want it to be more intense, constructive and we shouldn’t always stumble over endless and very aggressive US statements towards Russia," Zakharova said.
Zakharova stressed that dialogue between Moscow and Washington was not suspended. "Don’t listen to statements that are made by American experts, in particular," she noted. "Meetings between our embassies are held both in Moscow and Washington, various issues are settled and opinions are shared all the time."
"We want to do specific, important and useful work," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman concluded.
The United States has for many years conducted a policy towards Russia that by no means agrees with the principles of constructive cooperation, while there have been no such instances on Russia’s part, Zakharova said.
"The policy that Washington has conducted towards Russia for the past few years can be described as failing to meet the tasks of constructive cooperation," Zakharova said. "Examples of Moscow’s unconstructive and inappropriate attitude to Washington cannot be cited. There are no examples, provided they are not invented, like the notorious allegations of the Kremlin’s interference in some elections."
"We proceed from the fundamental approach to cooperation with the United States and, honestly speaking, we have not heard anything Beijing approaches to this differently," Zakharova said. "In every statement Moscow says each time that cooperation with the United States in different fields: politics, humanitarian affairs, the economy, information security and cybersecurity - everything from ecology to disarmament, from finance to cooperation by mass media - are a priority for us. We would like to have such cooperation and we are prepared for it. Moreover, everything had been developing actively until just recently, there were presidential commissions, etc."
Zakharova pointed to the fact that statements about the United States’ rivalry with Russia and China are made by Washington now and then in this or that fashion and are even part of "conceptual documents addressing US national security matters, but the sources should be looked for "not in today’s or yesterday’s statements, but in the statements that the Barack Obama Administration started making."
"In general there has emerged nothing new in recent years. To this or that degree it’s the same old song and dance," Zakharova said. "The 'song and dance' were composed by the Obama administration, which did all it could to ruin our relations. It is hard to think of anything worse that had been done under Obama. The examples are well-known - from the expulsion of diplomats to the elimination of the joint (presidential commission) and all of its subgroups, a very important body of our cooperation, from visa issues to repeated charges against Russia of all conceivable sins."
"It is to be hoped that the tonality set by Obama and his team will be reconsidered in Washington at last," she added.