MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/. The lack of regular dialogue between Russian and US lawmakers is creating problems in bilateral relations, Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachev said at a meeting with US experts on arms control on Wednesday.

According to the senator, from Russia’s standpoint, the lack of regular dialogue between lawmakers in many ways provokes problems in bilateral relations.

Kosachev pointed out that Russia had many times expressed readiness to resume dialogue but received no response.

The Russian senator noted that the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the Senate Committee on Finance would soon hold a hearing on Russia, presumably to consider additional measures to exert economic and financial pressure on the country. "We will once again watch our US colleagues discuss Russia without us," Kosachev said, adding that US lawmakers had a shallow understanding of Russia’s domestic and foreign policies.

He also commented on US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley’s remarks that Russia and the United States would never become friends. "I think the word ‘friends’ does not apply to global politics, no matter what kind of the relations there are between countries, and I am inclined to agree that one cannot expect friendship to blossom between the US and Russia," Kosachev said. "I believe we all agree that Russia and the US have been competing with each other on the international stage," he said, particularly pointing to the competition between Moscow and Washington on the weapons and gas markets. He said that Russia and the United States would remain rivals in a number of fields. However, he stressed that Russia posed no danger to the US though Moscow did not accept efforts to impose the idea of a unilateral world.

However, in Kosachev’s words, "many - if not all - American politicians view Russia not only as an economic competitor but also as an enemy and a threat." "I think that it is a very serious problem," he concluded, emphasizing the need to build dialogue between the two countries, "based on the principle of equality," and search for common ground.