UPDATE: Ambassador: Russia, U.S. must cooperate as equals

(Adds further comments in last two paragraphs)

WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (PRIME) -- The U.S. must understand that it can only talk to Moscow as an equal partner, Russia’s Ambassador Sergei Kislyak told PRIME in an interview Tuesday.

Moscow’s goal is “toughly but without confrontation lead the U.S. administration to understanding of an imminent nature of building relations based on equal rights and mutual respect,” Kislyak said.

The U.S. idea of its uniqueness was always making the U.S.-Russia relations hard but now the bilateral relations “are witnessing one of the toughest periods over the last decades,” he said.

Russia and the U.S. must not suspend their dialogue because their influence on the global security is crucial, he said. The exchange of opinions has already resulted in cooperation in the Syrian chemical weapons destruction. Unfortunately, the opinion exchange on the Ukrainian crisis has not produced any real action, he said.

The statements of U.S. officials concerning efforts to increase Russia’s economic isolation are counterproductive, Kislyak said. “Actually, it is not the most productive pattern to harm Russia and to hope for cooperation with it”.

None of the U.S. companies operating on the Russian market have chosen to quit it on their own initiative so far, Kislyak said. “We are consistently explaining this (Russia’s openness for investments), we are helping to understand that it is impossible to isolate Russia or to tear apart its economy, one of the largest by the way, with sanctions. Business circles understand this better than the political ones judging by our contracts here.”

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