Russian Ambassador to US to Fly to Moscow March 20 for Talks on Relations With Washington

23:45 GMT 17.03.2021(updated 00:03 GMT 18.03.2021) Get short URL

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On Wednesday, Moscow recalled the diplomat for consultations aimed at “analysing what to do and where to move” in the context of relations with Washington, the Foreign Ministry said.

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov will fly to Moscow March 20 for talks on bilateral relations, the Russian Embassy in the US announced in a statement.

“Russian Ambassador to the United States A.I. Antonov will fly to Moscow on March 20 for a consultation. During the meetings in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and other departments it is planned to discuss ways to correct Russian-American ties in the crisis,” the embassy said.

The embassy also said ill-considered statements by US leaders have endangered relations with Moscow.

Russia recalled the ambassador following allegations that Moscow interfered in the 2020 US presidential election and Joe Biden’s remarks that he considers his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to be “a killer.” Asked if Biden was speaking literally or metaphorically when he called the Russian president “a killer,” White House Press Secretary Psaki said that she does not have any more analysis to provide on that issue.

On Tuesday, US intelligence released a new report alleging that Putin had authorized the Russian government’s “influence operations” to undermine then-Democratic candidate Biden during the 2020 election and to exacerbate political divisions in the US. According to CNN, the US may roll out new Russia sanctions over the alleged interference as early as the next week.

The Kremlin, in turn, qualified the report as “absolutely groundless and unsubstantiated,” expressing the belief this is just a pretext for introducing new restrictions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added that Russia did not interfere in the vote and had nothing to do with campaigns against any candidates. Washington’s sanctions policy could further aggravate the bilateral relations, he noted.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Sputnik that buildup of sanctions pressure by Washington against Moscow did not add any chances for the normalization of bilateral relations, adding that the responsibility for this rests entirely with the United States.

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