US-Putin ties are ‘poisoned’

Russia’s ambassador to the US said Friday that relations between the two countries were “poisoned” after the US expelled 60 Russian diplomats and the Kremlin retaliated by tossing the same number of Americans.

“It seems to me that the atmosphere in Washington is poisoned — it’s a toxic atmosphere. It depends upon us to decide whether we are in Cold War or not. But I don’t remember such bad shape of our relations,” Anatoly Antonov told NBC.

It was a curious choice of words for a man representing a country that the UK accused of using real poison — a Soviet-era nerve agent — to attack a former Russian spyturned-double agent and his daughter on March 4 in England.

The case prompted the UK to boot Russian diplomats and condemn the Kremlin for carrying out the attack on British soil.

On Monday, the US, European Union and other allies ordered the expulsion of Russian intelligence officers. The US also closed Russia’s consulate in Seattle.

Russian President Vladimir Putin retaliated on Thursday against the US, and the Kremlin followed through on Friday by expelling diplomatic staff from other countries — Canada, Australia and Albania — that joined the American-EU plan.

Antonov said he could not recall a time when relations were worse between Washington and Moscow.

He also repeated Russia’s claim that it did not interfere in the 2016 presidential election — meddling that has been confirmed by US intelligence agencies and is one subject of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

Antonov said it was “impossible to imagine” that the Kremlin was behind it.

Because of the probe, he added, “there is great mistrust between the United States and Russia.”

“Today, Russia’s responsible for everything, even bad weather,” he said sarcastically. “It’s high time for us to stop blaming each other. It’s high time for us to start a real conversation about real problems.”