MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. Russia expects that Moscow and Washington will manage to establish dialogue, and if the new US administration is ready for this, Russian President Vladimir Putin will certainly take a reciprocal step, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.
"The thing is that the Russian Federation has been consistently and traditionally calling for kind relations [with the US]," Peskov said in an interview with "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program on Rossiya-1 TV channel.
"We are saying in deed and not in name that we are ready to consider the Americans as our partners, they are not ready. But here love can't be forced," Peskov stressed.
"Certainly, we expect that we will be able to establish dialogue," he noted. This will be dialogue in which the sides will confirm that there is some disagreement. But at the same time dialogue is always an opportunity to find "those smallest areas where our relations coincide," Peskov said. "If the current US administration is ready for this approach, I have no doubt that our president will reciprocate," he stated.
The Kremlin spokesman drew attention to the first remarks of new White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who called for investigating cyber attacks against the US, of which Washington immediately accused Moscow, and "the alleged bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan."
According to Peskov, this approach was "quite predicted." "That’s because the new administration is old and well-known people," he explained. "As for the statements, the word ‘partner’ is probably not applicable to us for Washington and certainly they still view us more as foes," Peskov noted.
Flexibility in relations
Russia showed flexibility in relations with the United States but it cannot keep doing this endlessly and is not ready to tolerate rude behavior and diktat, Peskov said.
In comment on the host’s remark that Russian-US relations were worsening and at a certain point someone should make a concession, the Kremlin spokesman noted that "flexibility is a necessary element of inter-state relations."
"We are ready to show flexibility, [but] we are not ready for a diktat, we are not ready for rude behavior and we are not prepared for crossing ‘the red lines.’ As for the rest, certain flexibility was shown," he stressed. "But it cannot be shown endlessly."
The TV host voiced an opinion that Russia "should have been more flexible" and gave the example of the situation with the coup d’etat in Ukraine in 2014 and granting asylum to former National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden. "No, these are these the red lines, which cannot be crossed," Peskov stressed.