MOSCOW (Reuters) – One of the Kremlin’s most senior hawks, Nikolai Patrushev, said on Monday that trust between the two “great powers” of Russia and the United States should be restored and that Moscow was ready to resume cooperation with America in the Arctic.
U.S. President Donald Trump has pivoted towards Russia in a bid to end the three-year war in Ukraine as he and his administration view China as the biggest threat to the United States.
The Kremlin has welcomed the chance to restore ties with the United States after the confrontation over Ukraine triggered what diplomats from both countries said was the worst crisis in the history of their relations.
“Russia and the United States, as great powers, historically bear special responsibility for the fate of the world,” Kremlin aide Patrushev, a Cold War warrior who crafted the Kremlin’s national security strategy, told the Kommersant newspaper.
“And the experience of past decades or even centuries shows that in the most difficult crisis moments our countries have always managed to overcome their differences.”
Trump’s pivot towards Russia has deeply concerned many traditional European allies of the United States who fear Washington may be turning its back on Europe.
Patrushev, a former KGB officer from St Petersburg where President Vladimir Putin was born, also said that Russia was ready to resume cooperation with the U.S. in the Arctic.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
