Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov speaks during a news briefing on the sidelines of the Russia-ASEAN summit in Sochi, Russia, May 19, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Wednesday almost all communications channels between Russia and the United States have been frozen but the U.S. State Department disputed that statement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia did not expect the incoming U.S. administration to quickly reject enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and that almost all communication with the United States had ceased, according to Russia’s RIA news agency.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump questioned during his election campaign whether the U.S. should protect allies seen as spending too little on defense, raising fears he could withdraw funding for NATO at a time of heightened tensions with Moscow. Russia has said it would take countermeasures in response to any expansion of the 28-member military alliance.
“Almost every level of dialogue with the United States is frozen,” RIA quoted Peskov as saying. “We don’t communicate with one another, or (if we do) we do so minimally.”
State Department spokesman John Kirby quickly rejected Peskov’s statement.
”It’s difficult to know exactly what is meant by this comment, but diplomatic engagement with Russia continues across a wide range of issues,” Kirby said in an emailed statement to Reuters. “That we have significant differences with Moscow on some of these issues is well known, but there hasn’t been a break in dialogue.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone on Tuesday regarding the situation in Syria, Kirby said.
Separately, the Pentagon said it had held a video conference with counterparts at the Russian defense ministry to ensure the two sides’ air operations do not come into conflict with each other in Syria. Such discussions with Russia are held regularly as U.S. warplanes conduct daily air strikes against Islamic State in Syria.
RIA, citing an interview it said Peskov gave to Russia’s Mir TV station, quoted him as saying he did not know whether President Vladimir Putin would seek re-election in 2018.
“Everyone’s heads are aching because of work and with projects and nobody is thinking or talking about elections,” Peskov said.
Most Kremlin-watchers expect Putin to run for the presidency again.
(Reporting by Peter Hobson in Moscow and Yeganeh Torbati and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Richard Chang)
Americans need to think about what is happening with Russia. Russia right now is not our main enemy and honestly they should be more of an ally then enemy in this situation. There stance on supporting the current government of Syria is not crazy or evil. Look what has happened every time we have helped freedom fighters or we sent troops to overthrow one of these governments. The crazy radicals take over and things get worse. The globalist want things to melt down and they want is is to grow and prosper. This is how the create the situation where they get the one world government. Put in while not someone I completely trust is one that does see the danger in thesw globalist and sees what Sorts is trying to do but he has had no partner in the usa because Soros people have been running our government for so long. I pray for the people if Syria and would support a safe zone someplace but I cannot support overthrowing another dictator to see the radicals spread terror even faster