Moscow names condition for ‘normalization’ with US

The US needs to start respecting Moscow’s interests before damaged bilateral relations can be amended, a senior Russian diplomat has said.

“I’ll be frank: we’re not seeing grounds for finding compromises with Washington, which is not quite capable of negotiating,” Aleksandr Darchiev, the head of the Foreign Ministry’s North American Department, told the Russian news agency TASS on Saturday.

“Of course, if the American side finally turns to common sense and Washington takes a sober look at the changing geopolitical landscape, demonstrating – not with words, but with actions – the intent to respect Russian national interests, then a basis for a gradual normalization of bilateral relations will appear,” he added.

The US and its allies in NATO imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine in late February.

However, the attempt to tank the Russian economy has failed, Darchiev argued, as have “the attempts to muster an international anti-Russian coalition that would be broader than the traditional bond between the US and its vassals.” 

“We are reacting calmly, and not going out of our way to seek talks,” the diplomat said, adding that it was Washington’s decision to suspend wider contacts with Moscow since February.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart Antony Blinken spoke over the phone in late July, their first conversation since Russia’s military campaign began.

The conversation occurred around the same time the US Senate unanimously passed a non-binding resolution that called for the State Department to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. The Kremlin said that such a move would only further strain the relations between the countries.

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