Contacts between Russia and the U.S. have brought about hopes that both sides are willing to restore bilateral ties mired by the three-year-old Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, Reuters reports.
Speaking at a meeting of the board of the Federal Security Service in Moscow, Putin said that "first contacts with the new U.S. administration inspire certain hopes", noting that "there is a reciprocal commitment to work to restore interstate relations to gradually address the enormous amount of systemic and strategic problems in the global architecture."
According to Putin, "not everyone is happy to see Russia-U.S. contacts resume", as "a portion of Western elites are still committed to maintaining instability in the world and these forces will try to disrupt or to compromise the newly resumed dialogue" between the two sides.
Russia has never refused to resolve the Ukraine crisis by peaceful means, said the Russian president.
The country is committed to creating "a global security system for the long term, where the security of some countries cannot be ensured at the expense or to the detriment of the security of other countries, definitely not Russia," said Putin.
