MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said the upper house has not received any requests so far for a meeting from US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman.
Earlier, the ambassador said he was ready to meet with Matviyenko, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, Russian General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov and other officials.
"As of today, the Federation Council has had no official requests for a meeting from the US ambassador. If this request comes, I will certainly make a decision depending on my possibilities and my schedule which is rather busy at the moment, and also depending on how the relevant agencies in the US will be responding to the requests from the Russian ambassador to the US, including to the Congress," Matviyenko said.
The speaker emphasized the importance of maintaining dialogue with ambassadors from all countries. "This is an essential condition for our mutual understanding and cooperation, for attempts to establish a dialogue at all levels," she went on to say.
"I myself was an ambassador, and I believe the key task of an ambassador in the country of duty is by no means confrontation, but [the readiness] to do everything possible and impossible, to take concrete steps to establish friendly relations, cooperation, and dialogue, the speaker noted.
This is the main mission of an ambassador, she stressed. "If an ambassador does not engage in this, of course his mission will fail," Matviyenko said.