MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/. Russia and the US are engaged in an active dialog, but yet it is too early to speak of a thaw in relations between them, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said in an interview with the Izvestia daily on Monday.

"It is still early to speak of a thaw in relations of Russia and the US. However, a dialog continues, and it is an active dialog," she said when asked to comment on an agreement to set up a Russian-American group to mend bilateral relations.

"An agreement to set up a joint working group, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's visit to Moscow, a visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Washington, an upcoming meeting of the two countries’ presidents at the G20 summit in Hamburg - these all are certainly encouraging signals," the speaker believes.

Matviyenko believes a host of problems have built up in the world that cannot be settled without an open and equal dialog of Moscow and Washington, without their achieving mutual agreements.

"Coming first is fight against international terrorism, the settlement of the situation in Syria, in the Middle East and in other ‘trouble spots’," she noted.

She also marked as topical issues of fight against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, cooperation on space, preservation of the environment. "Generally, Russia and the US have basis for cooperation. Now it’s all about good will of the American side," Matviyenko said.

She said that a sizable part of the US establishment remained opposed to an improvement in ties with Russia. "And their influence is rather big, it has its effect on actions of the White House, we see this. Donald Trump is simply hands-tied," the speaker summed up.