John Sullivan: 'We are never completely separating'

John Sullivan, US Ambassador to Russia, excluded a possibility for Russia and the United States to terminate their relations completely.

When commenting on the current relations between Russia and the United States, John Sullivan noted that representatives of the two countries sit next to each other at meetings of the UN Security Council in New York at least every day.

"We must preserve the ability to speak to each other," Sullivan said in an interview with TASS news agency on June 6. Closing the embassies of the world's two biggest nuclear nations "will be a mistake," he added.

Contacts should be maintained, Sullivan said, despite the differences. Moscow and Washington should preserve "some basic things necessary for the embassies and bank accounts to remain open," he added.

"We are also never completely separating. We can't just cut diplomatic relations really, and just not talk. At a minimum, we sit near each other at the UN Security Council in New York every day. No matter what, we are better talking to each other at the UN, at the Security Council. And we should have embassies. This is the bare minimum. This is basic," Sullivan told TASS.

On June 2, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Grigory Mashkov said that there was a minimal probability of compromises between Moscow and Washington.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier that the US should "put an end to its destructive policy both in relation to Russia and in general terms."

Noteworthy, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there were no contacts between the authorities of Russia and the united States.

In turn, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that now was not the time for meetings between Russian and US officials.