Russia and the United States are currently at a “very, very hot point of confrontation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said on Thursday.
“We are at a very, very hot point of confrontation today,” the representative of the Russian Presidency told the RIA Novosti news agency.
According to Peskov, despite hopes that arose about a possible improvement in relations after the meeting a year ago between the leaders of the two countries in Geneva, Switzerland, “Washington refused to discuss the issue of Russia’s security and the no expansion of NATO” to Russian borders.
Commenting on the possibility of a new meeting between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, Peskov said that “it would hardly be possible now or in the near future”.
The only way to normalize relations is for the US to renounce its ambitions of hegemony and understand that “Russia does not want, is not and does not intend to be anyone’s vassal in any way”, he stressed.
On Wednesday, Peskov admitted that Russia and the West will have to interact in the future, but as long as the interests and concerns of the parties are respected.
“Communication is necessary. In the future, we’ll have to talk anyway. The United States is not going anywhere, nor is Europe. We will have to interact in some way,” the Kremlin spokesman said at its daily press conference.
Peskov argued that this interaction should be based solely on the principles of mutual respect, indivisible security and the interests of the parties, admitting that this will not happen in the near future.
“Is it possible to return now to the spirit of Geneva, when there was still hope? We can hardly hope, when we realize what is happening now,” said Peskov, asked about the anniversary of the first meeting between the leaders of Russia and the US, in Geneva, which is marked on Thursday.
The Kremlin spokesman further defended that, under current conditions, “there may be new hope”, but only based on a totally different form of interaction from the one that was attempted a year ago.
