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Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov assured today that he does not yet know when he will return to Washington after being recalled for consultations last week by the Kremlin.
“I don’t know. As the leadership decides. It’s not for me to decide. I didn’t come here on vacation. I have been called to make an analysis, to talk about the future,” Antonov told reporters.
Antonov, a former deputy defense and foreign minister, assured that “this is not the time to get angry” between the two nuclear powers.
“We have to do concrete things, fight challenges and threats, because of those, unfortunately, we have many,” he stressed.
For example, he called on Washington to jointly fight the coronavirus pandemic, something he said Russia is more than willing to do.
Antonov specified that he was called to Moscow to “see what can be done so that relations (with the United States) do not plunge completely into the abyss.”
“Such a situation does not meet our interests,” said the diplomat, who admitted that he has not yet met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Antonov returned to Moscow on March 22 for consultations after U.S. President Joe Biden called Putin a “killer,” words Russia promised not to overlook.
Biden answered in the affirmative to a question on whether he considers the Russian leader a murderer in an ABC interview aired last Tuesday.
“As for the statements of my American colleague, we, as he said, know each other personally. What would I answer him? I would say to him: ‘Be in good health’. I wish you good health,'” Putin said.
In his opinion, the U.S. ruling class hurls serious accusations at other countries to solve its internal foreign policy problems.
As for relations with the United States, he insisted that Washington will have to take Russia’s interests into account whether it likes it or not.
“We, even if they think we are like them, we are different. We have another genetic code and another ethical-cultural code. But we know how to defend our interests,” he stressed.
