MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/. Russian-US relations are living through a difficult period and the two countries need to rebuild mutual trust, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman on Friday.
"As for further steps, we should rebuild trust. We should accumulate positive impulses and energy via joint efforts, via cooperation, via practical interaction to be able to set more meaningful tasks. Now, to be frank, we have zero trust. Regrettably, we are suffering numerous stresses in our relations. We are living through quite a difficult period," he said, adding that the most appropriate tactics in such conditions would a "tactic of small steps."
"Let us work on the agenda that cannot be distorted and transformed into breaking-news headlines by those who is not interested in the normalization of Russian-US relations, who doesn’t want to see this factor as beneficial for international relations. Later on, if we manage to do it, I think we will be able, directed by the leaders and relying on the experience of our predecessors, to build something new and worthy that would be on a par with the joint Soyuz-Apollo spaceflight," Ryabkov stressed.
Touching on the June 24 Victory Parade in Moscow, the senior Russian diplomat emphasized that historic memory was still alive and it could not be erased. However, in his words, foreign colleagues keep on trying to distort historical facts. "Our overseas colleagues did not keep out of politicizing the holy memory about who made the biggest contribution to the Great Victory," he said, adding he hoped the joint statement by Russian and US Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, on the 75th anniversary of the meeting of the Soviet and US troops on the Elbe River would be a tuning fork in the countries’ approaches to the history of World War II and its heroic heritage. "We will cherish it," he pledged.