MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/: Speaker of the Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Valentina Matviyenko does not see anyone among the US presidential candidate a person who can break the impasse in the Russian-US ties, she said in an interview with TASS.
"We would very much like to see such a person among the candidates for US president but there are no grounds to say that, to be honest," Matviyenko noted when asked if the US candidates can break the current deadlock and reload the relations.
She recalled the Russian position that Moscow will work with any president elected by the American people. "We would like to hope that when the US presidential elections pass and, as most experts predict, the post-election disputes settle down and when the elected president shakes off, possibly, strict domestic political restrictions, the US leader will realize the importance of restoring and improving ties with Russia in the sphered where we have mutual interests," the speaker noted.
Mentioning the fact that the Russian interference card can once again be played in the US, the senator pointed out that "this topic is artificially created and everyone in the US is tired of it." "This card is discarded, I think. This is definitely not going to be a trick in the current election campaign. Americans are concerned by their domestic issues, they are real and cannot be attributed as the Kremlin’s doing," Matviyenko noted.
The topic of the anti-Russian sanctions, she believes, has become "a ritual for American politicians." "It is easy to make up a reason, they will likely to be conceived further until our relations are reloaded and rethought," she noted.
The speaker is convinced that Russia should be independent of these sanctions. "I believe that sanctions are a sign of weakness. It is not a sign of a strong and confident state. Meanwhile, we are strong, we are a country of great opportunities. We have the most educated and intellectual people. We have everything to be self-reliant, confident and develop successfully. We will work on this," she concluded.
