Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov noted on Wednesday that Russia’s proposal to lift all the existing diplomatic restrictions was not supported by either the US Department of State or the White House.
Antonov stressed in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel that without settling these problems, it will be nearly impossible to resume normal relations between the two countries.
According to the Russian diplomat, it will be impossible to resume normal relations between the two countries without settling these problems.
Adding that these problems impact adversely everyday life of Russian diplomats, ne pointed to the wrong impression Washington has that Russia needs predictably bad relations in this sphere, a point of view they cannot accept.
The Russian ambassador believes the US should rethink its concept of “moral selfishness,” noting that Washington is guided by the concept that was formulated by Henry Kissinger “what is good for America is good for the whole world.”
In that sense, he reminded the US that the priorities, history and culture of different countries are different.
Addressing the online Fort Ross Dialogue conference that started on Tuesday, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called on the US to begin dialogue with the Russian side to lift the existing restrictions and to normalize the process of rendering consular services by sending more diplomats to Moscow.
However, Antonov pointed that Russia and the United States are gradually restoring communication channels, establishing businesslike relations between the security councils and have yielded concrete results in improving the relationship between the two states.
He pointed in that context to Washington’s visit two weeks ago by a large delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk as well as Helsinki meeting of the Russian General Staff Army’s Chief, General Gerasimov with his US counterpart.
Despite all this, Antonov isn’t ruling out further US economic sanctions against Russia, pointing to the Washington’s efforts to impose its approaches on international economic markets.
Reminding on the situation with Nord Stream 2, he noted that, nevertheless, Russian companies have learned to operate in such conditions by finding gaps where they can cooperate with US colleagues and work without violating US laws.
Antonov stressed that in light of the myriad of problems they’re all facing with, such as the COVID pandemic that has changed the normal life of people all across the world and the climate change that’s affecting them all, Russia needs and is interested in establishing pragmatic, businesslike and predictable relationships with the United States.
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