Kremlin says summit will not stop U.S. trying to contain Russia

The Kremlin said on Monday it did not expect the United States to stop trying to “contain” Russia after a summit of their leaders last week, and that it was important for the two powers to be pragmatic amid talk of new U.S. sanctions.

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN on Sunday the United States was “preparing another package of sanctions” related to the poisoning” of one of their citizens on Russian soil”.

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was flown to Germany in August last year after being poisoned with what German doctors said was the Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent Novichok. Russian authorities have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that Moscow was aware of possible impending U.S. sanctions.

“The president’s words about the constructive mood during the summit do not indicate that we have moved away from a sober assessment of our bilateral relations with the United States,” Peskov said.

“Pragmatism and sobriety are most important in these relations. And both suggest that the constructive, positive results of the summit absolutely do not indicate that the United States will abandon its policy of containing Russia,” he said.

The two countries were set to discuss “normalising” the work of their respective embassies, the foreign ministry said on Monday.

Russia’s ambassador to the United States, who had been out of Washington for months, returned on Sunday following the summit.

Reuters