MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. Moscow does not expect its relations with Washington to get much better now that US President Donald Trump is back in the White House, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Monday.
"We’re not too optimistic about this area improving, compared to others," the diplomat said speaking at a news conference.
"In US domestic politics and within the rigid framework of its foreign policy, Russia has been officially designated as a 'major adversary,' as they call us officially," Ryabkov stated.
"This perception has long been reinforced by a bipartisan consensus in the United States" he added.
The high-ranking Russian diplomat added that the United States' involvement in the conflict in Ukraine is manifold.
According to Ryabkov, one of the biggest issues is "state-of-the-art weapons that are supplied by Washington to the Kiev regime, including long-range missile systems serviced by specialists from the Pentagon and which are guided to their targets by US intelligence services."
Donald Trump’s return to the White House, is in defiance of numerous forecasted statements, and they mean "a change both in the US’ domestic policy and, certainly, the emergence of numerous new components and nuances in its foreign policy course," the senior Russian diplomat said.
According to him, "the liberal-globalist agenda has been replaced by the reality of national populism" in the United States. "That said, US expansionism is still alive and well, as well as their drive to dominate global affairs. It’s just being framed differently compared to how the Democrats did it," Ryabkov explained.
On January 22, Trump took the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States. He and his Vice President James David Vance were sworn in not in front of the Congress building, but - for the first time in 40 years - in its central hall, the Rotunda, which is capable of accommodating about 1,000 people.