Sputnik- Foreign Minister said that Russia is ready to transform its dialogue with the United States toward a more constructive path.


MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia is ready to transform its dialogue with the United States toward a more constructive path, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday.


"Russia… is ready to do its part of the work to rechannel dialogue with Washington toward a constructive channel, primarily in order to find effective responses to the challenges of terrorism," Lavrov said at an opening ceremony for political consultations among members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).


Since 2014, relations between Russia and the United States deteriorated amid the crisis in Ukraine, and Washington as well as Brussels and their allies have introduced several rounds of anti-Russia sanctions over Moscow's alleged involvement in the Ukrainian conflict.

On Thursday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev characterized the souring of Russian-US ties as the worst foreign policy mistake made by the administration of outgoing US President Barack Obama.

At the same time, during the election campaign US President-elect Donald Trump pointed out that in case of his victory US-Russian elections could be improved. On January 15, Trump said in an interview with The Times and Bild media outlets that US sanctions against Russia could be lifted in exchange for a bilateral agreement on the reduction of nuclear weapons.