MOSCOW. April 7 (Interfax) - The strikes carried out by the United States on an airbase in Syria harm Russia-U.S. relations, and Russian President Vladimir Putin sees them as an attempt to distract the international community's attention from civilian casualties in Iraq, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"Putin also sees the strikes carried out by the U.S. on Syria as an attempt to divert the international community's attention from the multiple casualties among the civilian population in Iraq," Peskov said.
"This step by Washington is causing significant damage to Russian-American relations, which are already in a deplorable state," he said.
"And what counts most, Putin believes, is that this step is not taking us any closer to the final goal in the fight against international terrorism, but, on the contrary, it is creating a serious obstacle to the establishment of an international coalition to combat it and efficiently counter this global evil. However, U.S. President Donald Trump by the way proclaimed it [fight against terrorism] as one of the main tasks back during his election campaign," Peskov said.