ST. PETERSBURG, June 4. /TASS/. Relations between Moscow and Washington have ended up being held hostage to America’s domestic political atmosphere and processes, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at Friday’s plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

"I am sure that it [US policy towards Russia] is primarily impacted by the domestic political processes. Russia-US relations have to a certain extent become hostage to the internal political processes that are taking place in the United States," Putin pointed out.

When asked if Washington could be expected to slap new sanctions on Moscow after the Putin-Biden summit scheduled to take place in Geneva on June 16, like it had happened in the wake of the Putin-Trump summit in Helsinki in 2018, the Russian president said: "You should ask [US President Joe] Biden about it. I don’t know. We don’t introduce sanctions. We only respond to sanctions where we consider it possible, without harming ourselves or shooting ourselves in the foot. It remains largely a mystery as to why our American partners do what they do."

The Russian leader noted that the fundamental interests of both countries "at least in terms of security, strategic stability and the reduction of arms that pose a danger to the entire world are more important than the current domestic political climate in the US."

Putin was hopeful that Washington’s policy of sanctions against Moscow "will end one day".