US attempts at hampering interaction between a number of countries and Russia drive Moscow-Washington relations into a deadlock-Ryabkov

MOSCOW, July 4 (Itar-Tass) - US attempts at hampering interaction between a number of countries and Russia drive Moscow-Washington relations into a deadlock, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told the newspaper Kommersant in an interview published on Friday. "The United States has curtailed tried-and-tested and effective formats of dialogue and cooperation with us, the formats that have proven their relevancy," Ryabkov recalled. "This applies primarily to the bilateral presidential commission and the dialogue on economic matters. The US administration came to consider that this dialogue is not needed". "I did not suppose that matters regarding trade, investments, and access to markets can be so simply fall victim to geopolitical considerations," the diplomat acknowledged. "It turns out that this can happen. Incidentally, such decisions are initiated by the government of the country which inscribed on the banners of its economic growth and might that the market decides everything and that it must be regulated in a minimal way". "At present," the Deputy Minister went on to say, "the market turns into a foreign-policy instrument". "Forbidden tricks which have nothing to do with market interests and considerations of economic efficiency are employed on an increasingly wide scale," Ryabkov pointed out. "All that is subordinated to purely geopolitical task of restricting and even throwing back a country or countries which by virtue of their foreign-policy course or something else do not suit the USA". "Those are tricks from the past, and a very distant one. In this, just as in many other manifestations of harmful disruptive activity of US political forces with regard to economic operators, we see a reflection of a lack of confidence as to extent to which US interests can be ensured in the future," he emphasized. "If one resorts to such tricks, it means that the array of foreign-policy tools is not so rich". Ryabkov also drew attention to a number of other "manifestations of such mentality that put one on one's guard". "Such as, specifically, an increasingly wide use of the instrument of sanctions, including measures to limit the bank servicing of normal economic activities. This is none other than a new offensive (weapon), in some respects even a strategic foreign-political weapon of the USA," he remarked. Related news