MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) - Moscow is alarmed by Washington's attempts to list Russia among the adversaries of the United States and views these attempts as a relapse of the way of thinking characteristic of the administration led by former U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Interfax on Monday.
Media outlets earlier began publishing excerpts from a new U.S. national security strategy, the full version of which is expected to be released later on Monday.
"If we do comment on the essence of the strategy, then it will only be after thoroughly analyzing it," Ryabkov told Interfax.
At the same time, "Russia was named an adversary of America in the act passed in the outgoing year, which was put into effect in August. Therefore, this decision is no news to us. Certainly, we are alarmed to see insistent attempts by U.S. officials and the authors of this kind of fundamental policy documents to charge us with having intentions that we don't have and can't have," he said.
Asked whether he sees some inertia in this approach, Ryabkov replied, "Certainly. In fact, these are relapses to the way of thinking and perception of Russia that was very characteristic of the previous administration. We regret that, considering the predominant sentiments in the American political mainstream now, such groundless accusations and attempts to charge us with non-existent intentions persist and continue to be replicated."
"We favor equitable and mutually respectful interaction with the U.S. on a broad range of issues of the international agenda and those pertaining to strategic stability. This is our non-opportunistic and consistent course, but we stand ready to adhere to this course to the extent to which the U.S. itself is determined to interact normally, without assigning labels and without attempts to demonize the essence of our policy, as is done in the act you have just mentioned and which the national security strategy is likely to reflect in one way or another," he said.