One of Russia's top foreign affairs experts has dismissed any "quick fix” of Russian-U.S. relations under U.S President-elect Donald Trump.
Leonid Slutsky, the head of Russia's State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs, urged the Kremlin to wait until the Trump administration was firmly in place before making any steps to mend ties.
"The men and women which Trump has put forward for key posts are holding on to the same rather rigid positions on issues and on anti-Russian sanctions, and the Crimea, as well as the situation in Ukraine and Syria,” Slutsky wrote in Russian tabloid Izvestia on Friday. “Even Rex Tillerson, a man who has been awarded the Russian Order of Friendship, has made some markedly unfriendly remarks about Russia.”
Slutsky said that Trump was "not a politician, but an American patriot," and that the Kremlin could expect him to focus on U.S. interests.
“We do not expect a quick and simple restoration of Russian-U.S. relations, but we do expect that Donald Trump's team will be pragmatic and ready to build constructive dialogue with Russia, moving away from the outdated clichés of the Cold War," he wrote.
Republican candidate Donald Trump will be officially inaugurated as president on Friday, Jan. 20 in a ceremony outside the Capitol Building in Washington D.C.
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