Peskov Describes How U.S. Talks to Russia, as an Adversary

July 5, 2021 (EIRNS)—Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared on Rossiya-1 TV’s “Moscow.Kremlin.Putin.” program yesterday in an interview, in which he emphasized that Russia will not tolerate further provocations like that in the Black Sea with the HMS Defender on June 23. At one point, he blamed it entirely on the United States. “I think our intelligence certainly knows who made a decision there. But certainly I think such operations are basically planned by senior partners from overseas,” he said. According to him, “in this case the destroyer was just a tool of provocation,” reported TASS.

He vowed that Russia will respond harshly to any similar provocations to the incident with the British destroyer. “This is indeed so,” Peskov said, referring to Putin’s June 30 remark that it was a deliberate provocation, during his “Direct Line with Vladimir Putin” broadcast. “And most importantly, as the President said, that information that the [U.S.] reconnaissance plane obtained is not that information that they sought to get, but this was that information that the Russian side believed it necessary to provide,” Peskov said. “Someone even joked [during the event] that the President will now give the first and last names of this plane’s pilots and even their address.”

Peskov agreed that Kiev is also carrying out flagrant anti-Russian provocations. “Ukraine’s effort to stir up the situation is a reality, a sad reality in the conditions that we have to face,” he said, stressing that in response to provocations Russian President Vladimir Putin “takes decisions, which won’t be left unnoticed.”

“I mean both our maneuvers and our drills, but the only difference is that this happens on our own territory and we don’t deploy our military infrastructure on other continents,” he pointed out.

“In this respect, no one should probably have any doubt about resolute steps of President Putin and the Russian side in general. I still suggest not to speak about such apocalyptic scenarios as the Caribbean crisis and so on, because probably, every time Russia’s resolute steps become more clear for our opponents. Although we don’t have rose-colored glasses and understand that no one will give up an effort to contain our country,”

Peskov emphasized.

In regard to dialogue with NATO, Peskov stated, “Even with the North Atlantic, [Russia] can and should talk because only during a dialogue it is possible to exactly voice concerns....” Peskov stressed. “Now despite the attempts to resume it, we are facing an attempt to impose some agenda on us, moreover, in the form of an ultimatum. This makes such dialogue on those conditions, which they are trying to impose on us, impossible.”

NATO only pursues the goal of confrontation, he said. “It does not bring any stability on the continent. On the contrary, this is a destabilizing element. Meanwhile, Russia has always been interested in building constructive relations with NATO.”

Peskov also observed that the U.S. may be speaking to Russia, but as an adversary, and it is not conducive to improving relations.

“The U.S. President, unfortunately, cannot say that we need to develop good relations with Russia. And all we hear is that we will talk to Russians where we believe it necessary and most importantly, we will punish them if needed. And we still hear such rhetoric because it is just impossible to speak about good relations with Russia in America.”

At the same time, Peskov continued, the environment of talks between the Russian and U.S. leaders in Geneva was constructive

. “Nevertheless, it was more focused on dialogue. This is not a dialogue of like-minded persons, this is more a dialogue of those who have absolutely opposite positions on a large number of issues. But constructive stance still dominated the Geneva talks. But can this constructive stance immediately change the real situation? Unfortunately, no.”