U.S.-Russia relations continue degrading - Lavrov
MOSCOW. May 3 (Interfax) - Relations between Russia and the United States continue degrading, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"We have said more than once that we positively assess [U.S.] President Donald Trump's words about his willingness to develop a normal dialogue between our countries. Moreover, we fully share such an attitude and stand ready to do our part of the job in order to steer relations out of the artificial dead end where the administration of [former U.S. President] Barack Obama drove them," Lavrov said in an interview with the Italian magazine Panorama.
At the same time, Russia will judge its partners' actual interests in having constructive and mutually respectful cooperation "only by practical steps," he said.
"But the situation in relations continues degrading for now," he said.
"If any positive signals do come from the U.S. president, they are fully neutralized by the increasing Russophobia in the American establishment, which portrays our country as a threat and stands for the "systemic containment" of Russia with the use of sanctions and other instruments of pressure. Clearly, all this stems from political infighting in Washington and has nothing in common with reality," he said.