MOSCOW, June 2. /TASS/. The topic of sanctions has never been on the agenda of the Russian-American dialogue on eliminating irritants, said head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department of the North Atlantic Alexander Gusarov.

"Regarding unilateral American restrictions you mentioned, they have never been the subject of our dialogue on irritants. We consider such restrictions to be a priori an illegitimate instrument of pressure on our country, which in principle cannot be subject to discussion or negotiation. We proceed from the fact that Washington and other Western capitals themselves must mature to the point of understanding the inconsistency and futility of such self-imposed prohibitions," he said in an interview with the International Affairs magazine.