Putin: Russia will not wind down its relations with the United States

Russia will not wind down its relations with the United States, though they had been spoiled not by Russia's fault, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said addressing a meeting of ambassadors and permanent representatives of Russia on Tuesday while specifying the main tasks of the country’s diplomacy.
Vladimir Putin has slammed the US for exerting pressure on France to make it abandon its Mistral contracts.

On cooperation with Europe
Europe is Russia's natural and most important trade and economic partner, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
He has said Russia will be pushing ahead with the South Stream pipeline project despite the known difficulties.
“In cooperation with the European companies, we have built Nord Stream,” Putin recalled. “And despite the known difficulties, we shall go ahead with the South Stream project," the president said.
Someone seeks to use Europe in his interests, Putin noted. “More and more European politicians and businessmen are coming to understand that someone is simply seeking to use Europe in his interests, that it is becoming a hostage of short-sighted, ideologized approaches,” he said at a meeting with Russian ambassadors and permanent representatives.

On Ukraine
Russia and Europe failed to convince Poroshenko there is no way to peace through war, the Russian president noted.
He added that Petro Poroshenko assumed political and military responsibility.
“You know about the recent attempts to restore peace in Ukraine (Russian diplomats and the foreign minister personally took an active part in this process), you know about numerous talks, telephone conferences on that matter,” Putin said at a meeting with Russian ambassadors. “But regrettably, President Poroshenko took a decision to resume combat operations, and we - I mean myself and my colleagues in Europe - have failed to persuade him that a path to lasting, sustainable peace cannot be through war. Until now, Pyotr Alexeyevich [Petro Poroshenko] had nothing to do with orders to begin military actions, but now he has taken full responsibility upon himself — not only military but also political responsibility, which by far is more important.”
Kiev is conducting a well-targeted work on the elimination of media representatives, who are carrying out their professional duties in Ukraine, Putin has said.
“Murders of journalists are totally unacceptable, and I have reiterated this yesterday to the president of Ukraine,” Putin noted.

On Crimea
When touching upon the issue of Crimea’s accession, Putin stressed that Russia did not have the right to leave Crimea and Sevastopol to its fate and let NATO troops there.
“We could not afford to leave Crimea’s people and the people of Sevastopol at the mercy of militant nationalists and radicals. We could not afford to agree to a considerable restriction of our access to the Black Sea and to let NATO troops step on Crimea’s soil and enter Sevastopol, which still remember the valor and glory of Russian soldiers and sailors. We could not afford a radical change in the balance of force in the Black Sea,” the Russian president said.

On global challenges
The president has noted that the conflict potential is globally increasing and there is a triumph of policy of all-permissiveness. “The conflict potential in the world is growing. Old differences are escalating and new ones are being provoked,” Putin said at the meeting with Russian diplomats. “Unfortunately, we often see that international law does not work, basic decencies are not observed, and the principle of all-permissiveness is triumphing.”
He has warned Russian diplomats that their duties and requirements regarding the protection of national interest will grow.
A solid diplomatic cluster of Russia and China has emerged on the world arena, but it is not aimed against any third party, Vladimir Putin said.
Vladimir Putin said Russia is not interested in formats of international contacts where it has the role of an outside observer.
“We should not pay with our vital interests just for being allowed to sit nearby,” Putin said at a meeting with Russian ambassadors.
“World development cannot be unified. But we can and should look for common ground and see not only competitors, but also partners in each other. It is necessary to develop cooperation between different states, their unions and integration structures,” the Russian president said.

Main topics of the president’s address
Ukraine is one of the main topics of the meeting of ambassadors and permanent representatives of Russia with the participation of President Vladimir Putin. Official Secretary and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Grigory Karasin reported this on Tuesday.

“This is a very important topic,” the diplomat said. “A worthy topic in terms of complexity and seriousness; worthy to be one of the key issues of today’s discussion.”
The meeting’s topic is protection of Russia’s national interests and strengthening of foundations and principles of international relations.
“This will refer to priority tasks of Russia’s diplomacy — the consolidation of peace, maintaining global and regional stability and security, promotion of priorities of Russia’s foreign policy, development of mutually advantageous cooperation with foreign partners,” the Kremlin press service reported earlier.

The meeting's tradition
Under the provisions of Russia’s Constitution, the president maps out the guidelines of foreign policy. He has a big role in determining Russia’s positions on the international arena, he presents Russia in international relations, appoints and revokes the country’s diplomatic representatives to foreign states and international organizations.
Traditionally, the conferences of ambassadors and permanent representatives are held on a biennial basis. This will be the seventh such conference.
The organizers have invited top government officials, speakers of both houses of parliament, representatives of ministries and departments engaged in international business operations, researchers, experts, and business executives.
Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, said earlier the conference would update the tasks of the diplomatic services as specified in the revised version of the State Concept of Foreign Policy.
He recalled the focal points of Russia’s foreign policy, like speeding up integration processes in the CIS, interaction with partners in the Euro-Atlantic region, as well as cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East.
Lukashevich reaffirmed that Moscow proceeds from the principle of unconditionally political settlement of conflicts in different parts of the world and the supremacy of international law norms as the tools for settling the conflict situations.
Along with it, Moscow insists that international law should not be used as an instrument for serving the selected actors in international relations.