Kremlin hopes Russian-American relations not to be sacrificed to US presidential race

Kremlin hopes that contenders in the US presidential race will be more regardful of Russian-American relations, which used to be sacrificed to US election campaigns so many times in the past, Russian president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

“It is regretful that over the entire period of modern history the bilateral Russian-American relations have been sacrificed to the altar of election campaigns so many times and have been used as an instrument of those campaigns,” the Kremlin spokesman said adding that every time that practice had inflicted damage to the Russia-US relations.

“We hope that our bilateral relations will be sacrificed to a lesser degree during the forthcoming election campaign, which is gaining momentum in the United States,” Peskov said when asked to comment on Kremlin’s reaction to the harsh and critical remarks of the Republican Party’s candidates about Russia and its president.

“Putin has said more than once that he is absolutely calm about being criticized if this criticism is tactful and decent; if it does not go beyond the reach of reason and if it is not insulting and ill-natured,” Peskov said calling Putin’s stance as a normal human attitude to criticism.

The president’s press secretary also said the solution of many global problems was impossible without Russian-US cooperation. “Moscow has always stood for good and mutually beneficial relations based on respect for reciprocal interests,” Peskov said noting that Russia was constantly underlying its stance at all levels – from expert to the top one.

“We still believe that it is impossible to resolve many global problems without cooperation and interaction between Russia and the United States,” Peskov concluded.