Updated 12:53 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) – The period of cold relations between Russia and the United States will be long, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.
“It will be long, and not just because [solving] the Ukrainian crisis will take some time and everyone will have to think about joining efforts in a constructive manner and not about unilateral sanctions,” he said.
The Russian top diplomat added that it will take time for the US government “to review their place in the world, to gain an insight into the events of the recent decades, to understand that there is no alternative to a polycentric world and to new centers of economic, financial and political clout.”
“But this process is already under way,” he said.
US-Russian relations have deteriorated significantly since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis, as Washington repeatedly accused Moscow of meddling in Ukraine's internal affairs and aiding the independence supporters of the country's southeast. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied these claims.
Since Crimea’s reunification with Russia in March, the United States and its allies have introduced several rounds of economic sanctions against Russia.
Moscow responded to the restrictive measures by implementing a one-year ban on certain food imports from the United States and other countries that imposed anti-Russian sanctions.
