Russian Ambassador to U.S. Antonov Says Still No Contact with Biden Administration

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on Thursday that the Russian Embassy has not yet had any contacts with the new administration of President Joe Biden, Sputnik reports.

“It’s 11:30 a.m. now in Washington, DC, the Embassy has not yet had any contacts with the Biden administration,” Antonov said in an interview with the Russia 1 TV Chanel.

Biden was sworn in and took office as the 46th US president on Wednesday.

Antonov told Sputnik earlier that Russian diplomats intend to establish regular contacts with the new U.S. administration.

The Russian ambassador said the new administration should be given time to decide on foreign policy priorities and approaches, and its international course should be judged based on actions rather than pre-election rhetoric.

However, Antonov also said the possible meetings between Russian and U.S. presidents and the two countries’ top diplomats in 2021 will depend on a number of factors, including the normalization of the epidemiological situation, meetings agenda and the possibility of communication on the margins of multilateral events.

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said earlier in the week that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet planned contacts with Biden. Asked if Russia had already established contacts with Biden’s team and was in talks on a potential Putin-Biden phone talk, Peskov said “not yet.”