Russian-US relations is ‘between a two and a three’ on a 5-point scale: Putin

MOSCOW, Mar 11, 2020, TASS. The level of relations between Russia and the United States is currently between a two and a three on a scale from one to five, Russian President Vladimir Putin believes. “I would give them a three,” he told TASS in an interview for the project entitled “20 Questions with Vladimir Putin”, when asked for his opinion of the current condition of relations between Moscow and Washington, TASS reported.

“Between a two and a three. More like a three though,” he said.

On the list of positive aspects of Russian-US relations Putin mentioned cooperation in the struggle against terrorism and the growth of bilateral trade over the past two years.

The Russian leader disagrees with those who argue that the US may enjoy exclusive rights in the world. Speaking about his relations with former US President Barack Obama, Putin recalled that his counterpart postulated precisely that idea.

“He said that the US is an exceptional nation, with special, exclusive rights in the world. I cannot agree. God created us all equal and gave us equal rights. So, I think it is absolutely ungrounded to say that some people should have exclusive rights to anything,” Putin said.

While speaking about his relations with US presidents Putin said that his current US counterpart Donald Trump and he were on a first-name basis.

“He calls me Vladimir, I call him Donald,” Putin said.

He confessed it was difficult to say who of the US presidents, starting from Bill Clinton, who left the White House in January 2001, he felt most at ease with. “I had fairly constructive relationships with each of them,” he said. In particular, he said he shared “good relations” with George W. Bush, who was the US president in 2001-2009. Putin and Trump, who moved into the White House in January 2017, have had several meetings on the sidelines of major international forums. There has been only one full-scale bilateral summit so far – in Helsinki in July 2018. Also, they have held a dozen telephone conversations. Their latest meeting was on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka in June 2019.