Russia and the United States have made some progress in bilateral relations, particularly in starting to organize contacts regarding the so-called “irritants” both in Moscow and Washington, said the deputy Russian foreign minister, Sergey Ryabkov.
“That is, in addition to focusing on expert-level exchanges, there has been, if you will, a return to normalcy. In the sense that such working contacts are organized in capitals,” the diplomat said in an interview with TASS.
Ryabkov added that such meetings “are not made too public in order to ensure a suitable background and atmosphere”, but the results of these meetings – or lack thereof – are still communicated to the public.
At the same time, Ryabkov acknowledged that, overall, the dialogue between Russia and the US on “irritants” is stagnating. For example, at the end of December, Washington again refused to resume air traffic between the two countries until the end of the war in Ukraine. In Ryabkov’s opinion, in this area “there is still no movement”, just like in the case of the return of the seven Russian diplomatic properties in the US, confiscated in the context of sanctions. These include the general consulates in Seattle and San Francisco, the property at Killenworth on Long Island, the residences of the Russian embassy in the state of Maryland, the commercial office in Washington, and others.
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