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‘Russophobic consensus’ in US to remain regardless of who wins 2022 midterms – ambassador

Anatoly Antonov said that it is not worth expecting an improvement in Russian-American relations in the near future

SAN FRANCISCO, /California/, November 4. /TASS/. The United States leadership will retain its ‘Russophobic consensus’ no matter who wins the 2022 midterm elections in the country, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov told reporters.

"Speaking more broadly about the Russian-US relations <…>: it does not matter who wins the elections, the Russophobic consensus will remain in place. It would be na·ve to expect anything good <…> after the [election] results are announced on, say, [November] 9," the diplomat said, after visiting Russian citizen Alexander Vinnik, held in pretrial custody in California.

"I think that we, on our part, have no issues with resuming contacts via any channel, <…> but we are certainly not going to run after Americans and beg them," the Russian diplomat continued. "We are ready to communicate only on an equal footing, only when Russian national interests are taken into account. And we are not going to have it any other way, never."

The US will hold midterm elections on November 8 to elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 34 senators. According to a number of forecasts, the Republican party is likely to increase its representation in both chambers of the US Congress, providing them with an opportunity to obstruct some of the incumbent Democratic administration’s initiatives.