Russia will not allow the United States of America or any other country to talk to itself "from a position of strength," Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper published on Tuesday.
"<...> No one will allow America to talk to Russia from a position of force. It's impossible. Americans are repeating it like a mantra: 'We will talk to everyone from the position of force. Neither [President Vladimir] Putin, nor anyone else from the Russian leadership will allow the Americans, or anyone else, to talk to us like this. This is out of the question," said the Kremlin spokesperson.
Answering a question about whether a break in diplomatic relations with the United States is possible, Peskov said that "I would not like to talk about extreme scenarios."
Commenting on the invitation to Moscow of Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov for consultations, the presidential press secretary recalled that it is a question of revising bilateral Russian-American relations under the current White House administration. "After that, some kind of understanding of where we should go next will already be formulated," Peskov said.
He answered in the affirmative when asked if there were any common topics Russia and the US could talk about. "It's strategic stability, arms control, it's the settlement of regional conflicts. Those conflicts where the role of the United States may have some applied importance," Peskov listed. He also said that it's necessary to talk to the United States about the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program and "many other problematic situations in the world."
In a taped interview with ABC on March 16, US President Joe Biden said Russian leaders would have to "pay the price" for what he calls Moscow's alleged attempts to meddle in the US election. He also said yes to the question of whether he considers Putin a "killer". Afterward, the White House and the State Department claimed that Washington was counting on constructive cooperation with Moscow in areas of mutual interest, but was not about to iron out differences in bilateral relations. After these statements, the Russian ambassador to the US was invited to Moscow for consultations. Antonov has been in the Russian capital since March 21.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Sergey Bobylev / TASS
Based on materials from TASS