PSKOV. May 30 (Interfax) - The threat of media leaks has been constraining contacts between Russian and U.S. representatives, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
"The very threat, the danger, the risk of leakages constrains the regular operations, because you do not know what will happen the next day, you will see what you have just discussed with your interlocutor in the Washington Post or CNN, wherever," Ryabkov told the press while speaking in English on Tuesday.
This does not mean that what Russian diplomats, among them Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, "might have said [to U.S. colleagues] on any occasions could not be repeated openly," he said.
"But of course I would not tell anything to my interlocutors in Washington that I would not tell you, because we are down to the very basics, unfortunately. We need to start almost from scratch, we need to build up confidence, which is lower that the zero point," Ryabkov said.