"Fell into the abyss": Russian Ambassador to the United States assessed relations with Washington

Summoned to Moscow for consultations, Ambassador Antonov shared his vision of bilateral relations between Russia and the United States with the participants in a joint meeting of the International and Defense Committees of the Federation Council.

“We are far from bright expectations in Russian-American relations”, - Antonov quoted Interfax as saying.

The ambassador believes that there is no need to expect dramatic improvements in global relations between the countries, except "not in essence, but rather in nuances." The ambassador believes that the reason for the cooling is that Washington “has no desire to clean up the“ rubble ”in relations with Russia.

Despite the serious foreign policy crisis, the ambassador is convinced that the countries need to look for topics for dialogue. During consultations in Moscow, Antonov intends to analyze the current situation and propose ways out of the crisis.

The recall of the ambassador for consultations from Washington to Moscow was the Kremlin's diplomatic response to a televised speech by US President Joseph Biden, in which he called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a "killer". Biden did not elaborate on why he came to this conclusion. But analysts suggested that it could be about the murder of politician Boris Nemtsov at the walls of the Kremlin, or about the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who miraculously survived but was thrown into prison.

Biden's statement about Putin sparked an outcry in the Kremlin, where Biden's words were called "very bad statements".

It is not yet known when Ambassador Antonov will return to Washington. Meetings with Vladimir Putin, according to the press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov, have not yet been scheduled.