MOSCOW. July 23 (Interfax) - Head of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky has said he disagrees with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun on the causes of the deteriorating of Russia-U.S. relations.
"The allegations by the Department of State with regard to Russia it blames for the deterioration in Russian-U.S. relations are totally inconsistent. It was exactly on the initiative of the U.S. that contacts were frozen, in particular, ones at the inter-parliamentary level. Russophobia has become a can't-lose card in the domestic political struggle within the United States. And after all that, saying that Moscow made it practically impossible making progress in relations with Washington is to just turn white into black," Slutsky told reporters on Thursday.
Earlier on Thursday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said that progress in Russia-U.S. relations is practically impossible at this point.
Slutsky, for his part, said that Russia is interested "in a normal and constructive dialogue with the American side on the basis of mutual respect and parity."
"The two largest nuclear powers on the planet just can't have such a low level of relationship. But, very regrettably, Washington is still blinded with the ambitions of a hegemon and prefers to only listen to itself," he said.