MOSCOW, September 17./TASS/. The US has played its role in the worsening of relations between Russia and the West, which "entered a spiral of tension" in 2014, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Deutsche Welle television.
"I can say in simple terms, though it may look a bit straightforward, that the Americans are to blame to a sizable extent," Medvedev said when asked who was to blame for the worsening of ties between Russia and the West.
"Back in 2008 (during the Georgian-South Ossetian armed conflict — TASS) we could find a compromise between our positions, including the position of the United States, while during the developments in Ukraine (not in 2012, but in 2014), such a tough position of the Americans, which was reduced to pressure on European countries in a certain period, as a result of which our relations began to deteriorate and things ended up with the imposition of mutual sanctions," Medvedev added. He reiterated that first the US sanctions were slapped on Russia, and then sanctions from the European Union came, after which Russia imposed counter-sanctions.
"And we entered a spiral of tension. Mutual understanding, that of a partnership to a certain extent disappeared from our vocabulary," he said, noting that this mutual understanding existed even back in 2008, and it "in fact helped us to jointly cope with the economic crisis in 2008-2009," Medvedev stressed.
According to him, Russia’s relations with the West also became "hostage to the allied relations inside NATO and a consolidated position of the European Union." "In other words, it was not us who were in favor of their worsening," he pointed out.