Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov has on Wednesday said, there was nothing like a trust between the two countries – Russia and the United States, as Washington has not even tried to resolve the 2016 election-meddling issue through an “inter-agency process”.
On the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue 2019, during a panel discussion in New Delhi, Ryabkov said, “Because there is no such thing as the trust between Moscow and Washington, we cannot just take as something granted of what we hear from Washington on these issues.”
He added, “And like Mueller’s investigation, we haven’t seen anything during these two years that underpin claims of US officials that Russia is ‘guilty’.”
The US President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort has admitted on Tuesday, in a court filing that he has provided Russian with 2016 campaign’s polling data, who has ties with several intelligence agencies.
Ryabkov said, “I understand that many in the US strongly believe in Russia’s wrongdoing with regards to election meddling, hacking or whatever.”
While claiming that he has asked the US to look into the election-meddling issue, Ryabkov said: “We have offered countless times to this (Trump) administration and a dozen of times to the Obama administration to deal with it in a very pragmatic manner, to go through inter-agency process, to deal with IP addresses with individuals and institutions. The answer is no. Or, alternatively, there is no answer.”
Referring to issues related to Syria and Iran, Ryabkov said, “It’s striking for me to be present in this room and kind of listen to a debate where notions of regime change and imposition of unilateral sanctions are being kicked around as something generally acceptable, very normal, very usual, and very standard.”
He added, “The chances for yet another regime change are being discussed by think-tankers, politicians, in a sober quiet and cold manner. Something is wrong in the mindset of the people today. But let’s limit my comments to this.