MOSCOW, Feb 27: President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned "Western elites" against trying to sabotage a potential rapprochement between Russia and the United States, saying Moscow would use its diplomats and intelligence services to thwart such efforts.
Addressing Russia's FSB security service, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB and an agency he once led, Putin said he was pleased with the way an attempted reboot in ties between Moscow and Washington was progressing, even though it was early days.
"I note that the first contacts with the new American administration inspire certain hopes. There is a reciprocal mood to work to restore intergovernmental ties and to gradually resolve the huge number of systemic and strategic problems that have built up in the world's security architecture," said Putin.
He went on to hail the fact that Russia's current "partners" were demonstrating what he called pragmatism and realism and - in an apparent reference to Joe Biden's administration - abandoning the "ideological cliches" of their predecessors which he said had caused a crisis in international relations. —REUTERS
