Ties with Russia will go ‘ from bad to worse’ with Biden, offifficial says

Russia expects nothing good in relations with a “deeply hostile” U. S. under the incoming administration of Joe Biden and has no plans to make unilateral concessions to improve ties, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

“We are heading from bad to worse,” Ryabkov said in an interview with the Interfax news service published Wednesday, which he later confifirmed in a message.“The next U. S. president has been left with a bad legacy, and it will take a long time for him to sort this out.”

Moscow hasn’t initiated any contacts with Biden’s transition team,“and we are not going to do this,” said Ryabkov, who oversees Russia- U. S. relations. “In the end, it’s up to the Americans to decide what, when and how to make our bilateral relations.”

His comments come as Washington has blamed Moscow for a massive cyberattack that hit a wide range of government departments and Fortune 500 companies. Russia has denied responsibility. Though President Donald Trump has played down the breach even as his own senior offifficials accuse Russia, Biden has pledged to respond once he takes offiffice next month.

Ryabkov dismissed the controversy, saying Russia registers hacking attempts from U. S. and other foreign sources “every day,” and “we don’t make a fuss about it.”

Russia will “of course” retaliate against U. S. sanctions and in ways “that will touch on the entire complex of Russian- American relations,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday, without elaborating.