Putin says US responsible for failing relations

Putin has pledged Moscow’s commitment to building relations with Washington based on the principles of equality and respect.

“We have always advocated building Russian-American relations based solely on the principles of equality, respect for each other’s sovereignty and interests and non-interference in internal affairs,” the head of state said during the ceremony of foreign envoys presenting their diplomatic credentials, including US Ambassador Lynne Tracy.

“We will be guided by this in the future as well,” he promised.

He noted that current relations between Washington and Moscow were in deep crisis.

“The relations between Russia and the United States of America, on which global security and stability directly depend on, are experiencing a deep crisis, unfortunately,” the president continued, noting that this crisis is based on “fundamentally different approaches to shaping the modern world order.”

The head of state accused the US and its policy of supporting color revolutions and of provoking the crisis in Ukraine.

“Dear madam ambassador, I do not want to disrupt the pleasant atmosphere of presenting credentials, and I know that you would, probably, disagree with my opinion, but I cannot but note that the United States’ of America’s use of such foreign policy instruments as support of so-called color revolutions, the support of the coup d’etat in Kiev in 2014, eventually led to the current Ukrainian crisis, and additionally negatively contributed to the degradation of Russian-American relations,” Putin told Tracy.

Tracy was appointed as the Ambassador to Russia in December 2022 and became the first woman to lead the US diplomatic mission in the history of Russia. Tracy arrived in Moscow on January 26 and started performing her duties on January 30.

The relations between Russia and the European Union (EU) have seriously deteriorated recently, though Moscow expects their gradual recovery, Putin told the ceremony.

“The head of the European Union’s mission who is present here, probably shares the view that the Union’s relations with Russia have deteriorated seriously in recent years, much to our regret,” he said.

Moscow believes this is due to the fact that the EU has abandoned its “main initial function of economic cooperation expansion, integration on the European continent,” “initiating a geopolitical standoff with Russia” instead, Putin noted.

Russia expects a gradual recovery of relations with the EU, he continued, adding, “I would like to express hope that all actions inflicting damage to our relations will nevertheless remain in the past, and we will do everything to build them in a proper way for Russia and for economies of member states of this organization. We hope nevertheless that the logic of mutual cooperation will prevail over time.”

Apart from diplomatic missions of separate European countries, there are missions of the whole European Union as an integration as well. In Moscow, it was opened in 1991 (working as a mission of the European Commission, the EU’s supreme executive body, until December 1, 2009).

During the Wednesday ceremony, credentials were delivered by EU Ambassador to Russia Roland Galharague, who became head of the EU’s mission in Moscow last September.