Russian Embassy: Relations with the United States on the brink of collapse

Tensions between Moscow and Washington deteriorated further on Wednesday when Russia convened its ambassador for consultations on US President Joe Biden’s comments, which equated Russian leader Vladimir Putin with a “murderer.”

“On March 20, the Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, will leave for Moscow for consultations,” the embassy said in a statement issued Thursday morning.

Antonov plans to discuss “ways to repair relations between Russia and the United States that have been affected by the crisis,” he said.

The statement added that “certain ill-considered statements by senior US officials have already threatened the collapse of an already highly conflictual relationship.”

In an interview with ABC News, Biden was asked about a classified US intelligence report that Putin was trying to undermine his candidacy in the US presidential election last November and help his rival Donald Trump.

“He is [už tai] it will pay, ”said J. Biden, 78.

When asked if he thought Putin was accused of initiating poisoning attacks against opponent Alexei Navalna and other Kremlin political opponents, he was a “murderer,” Biden said.

The interview came after the US Commerce Department announced that it was tightening restrictions on exports to Russia that were imposed to punish Moscow for poisoning an imprisoned Navaln.

Konstantin Kosachev, deputy speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, said Washington should apologize on Thursday.

“Such statements are unacceptable under any circumstances and will inevitably worsen our bilateral relations,” he wrote on Facebook.

Moscow last summoned its ambassador to Washington for consultations in 1998 on the Western bombing campaign in Iraq.

After the sharp deterioration of relations in 2014 due to the annexation of Crimea by Moscow, Putin said that the removal of the ambassador would be a “last resort”.