MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to consecutively advocate building good relations with the US, despite Washington’s hostile outbursts, Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov told journalists Thursday.
"In general, despite all harsh remarks and hostile outbursts from Washington, President Putin continues to consecutively advocate building good relations with the US, at least in those fields that benefit us," Peskov said. “In cultivating our bilateral ties, we are always willing to go to whatever lengths that our partners are ready to go to,” he said.
According to Peskov, Moscow never advocated pushing relations with Washington "over the edge." "We have never posed a threat and are not posing a threat to anyone," he noted. "But of course, we will never allow anyone, the US included, threaten us, dictate anything to us and encroach on our interests."
The unpredictability and aggressiveness of Washington’s political course towards Moscow make it possible to use effectively any language to describe it, Dmitry Peskov commented on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remark, who blasted the US policy towards Russia as "ludicrous."
"The unpredictability, aggressiveness, harshness and unfriendliness of the US policy towards our country make it possible to use effectively any kind of language to define this policy. The minister is quite on point in his expressions, as always," Peskov said.
Earlier on Thursday, Lavrov pointed out fruitlessness of Washington’s sanctions policy towards Moscow, labeling it as a "ludicrous" and "dead-end" approach.
The hostility and unpredictability of US actions makes Russia brace itself for the worst scenarios in bilateral relations, the presidential spokesman told the media.
"The hostility and unpredictability of the US side in its actions obliges us to be poised for the worst scenarios. When you have an aggressively-minded and unpredictable counterpart in front of you, you have to stay mobilized all the time," he said.
Peskov remarked that media questions about Russian-US relations "by far outweigh the volume of these relations."
Earlier, Bloomberg quoted sources as saying that the Joe Biden-led US administration had completed a review of actions attributed to Russia, which Washington regards as hostile and was now studying the possibility of expelling Russian diplomats and imposing more sanctions. According to the sources, the sanctions might concern people close to the Russian leadership as well as "agencies linked to election interference."
On March 17, after US President Joe Biden’s interview, in which he called Vladimir Putin a "killer" and said that he will have to "pay a price," Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov was summoned to Moscow for consultations. The ambassador has stayed in Moscow since March 21, where he held a number of meetings, including in the Foreign Ministry and the State Duma.