Russia says bilateral relations with US 'very, very low', 'lying on the floor'

Bilateral relations between Moscow and Washington are "lying on the floor," despite the multi-front dialogues, the Kremlin told Russia's RIA news agency. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the US and NATO launched threats pledging to defend "every inch" of NATO territory, a pretence that they have deployed for military expansion, that jeopardises the Kremlin’s regional security. However, the Russian official acknowledged that the channels for comprehensive dialogues were still open. 

“One positive thing is that President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden have been in contact—the two spoke by phone on Saturday—but ties in other areas were strained,” RIA quoted Peskov as saying.

'We are at a very, very low point': Russia on relations with West

Moscow also seemed to accuse the Western government of the objections to ongoing major Russian military drills near its borders with Belarus. “The heads of state (US and Russia) are in dialogue, there is a dialogue on other fronts," RIA cited Peskov as saying in an interview. "This is a plus because you know that just a couple of years ago there was zero dialogue, there were no such contacts whatsoever,” he added and continued, "But on the rest, unfortunately, in bilateral relations one can only talk about negatives. We are at a very, very low point. They are actually lying on the floor.”

The Kremlin’s comments came as Russia’s Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jet crews conducted a joint patrol flight along the border of Ukraine with the Belarus Air Force on Monday, Russia's defence ministry informed in a statement. Russian warships, cruise, and supersonic missiles from its Caspian Flotilla to the Black and Mediterranean Seas scattered across the regional waters. More than 30 ships had started training exercises near the Crimean peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014, Izvestia daily reported, noting the information provided by the military sources on both sides. 

“Is it us who are putting missiles near the US borders?” Putin had earlier said angrily accusing West of stoking tensions. “No, it’s the US who came to our home with its missiles, it’s already on the threshold of our home. Is it some excessive demand not to place any strike weapons systems near our home?”, he added.