It would be difficult to rebuild relations with the U.S. as things stand, Russian President Vladimir Putin said when asked at his annual phone-in and news conference whether a normalization of relations was possible.
“When internal changes happen (in the U.S.), when they start respecting other people, other countries, when they start looking for compromise instead of trying to resolve their issues with sanctions and military intervention, then the fundamental conditions will be in place to restore fully-fledged relations,” Putin told the audience at his public phone-in and press conference Thursday.
“So far, such conditions are not in place, but we are ready for that,” he said, according to a Reuters translation.
Putin again blamed NATO for the deterioration of relations between Russia and the West, saying the military alliance had encroached upon Russia’s borders.
“The unbridled desire to creep towards our borders, taking Ukraine into NATO, all this led to this tragedy. Plus the bloody events in Donbass for eight years — all this led to the tragedy that we are now experiencing. They forced us into these actions,” he said.
“What the United States conceived and organized, Europe stands and silently watches, or plays and sings along with them there. Well how can we build relations with them?” Putin asked.