MOSCOW, June 27. /TASS/. Russia and the United States are keeping communication channels open and maintaining contacts through presidential administrations and special services, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.

"Channels of communication with Washington are not closed - just the day before yesterday a very important telephone conversation between Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov and his American counterpart (Lloyd Austin - TASS) took place. There are contacts at other levels and along other lines, along the lines of presidential administrations, in particular along the lines of intelligence services, diplomatic agencies are in contact with each other on their own issues. And this happens on a regular basis," he said during a Rossiya-1 TV broadcast.

"We should not find ourselves in a situation where we are working with a black box, where some impulses come from our side inside and the output is zero. That's why the channels I mentioned are important, that's why the function of ambassadors and embassies is important. And we will not abandon any of them, and you can treat the genre of diplomatic demarches however you like, but this is also an important element of the overall work, especially in the current crisis period," the deputy foreign minister added.