Washington Not Ready to Restore Financial Dialogue With Moscow - US Embassy

The United States is not ready to restore financial dialogue with Russia unless the Minsk peace deal aimed at Ukrainian reconciliation is fully implemented, a spokesperson for US Embassy in Moscow told Sputnik on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said last week that during a meeting with representatives from the US Department of Treasury, the US representatives sounded optimistic on renewing full-fledged financial dialogue with Russia.

"[Deputy Finance Minister] Storchak's claims that the United States has agreed to resume full financial dialogue with Russia are simply not true. Our policy has not changed. The United States is not prepared to start up a financial dialogue with Russia until the Minsk agreements are fully implemented," Will Stevens said.

Russia-US cooperation has been very limited recently due to a cooling in relations between the the two countries, as both Washington and Moscow have blamed each other for the turmoil in eastern Ukraine.

The United States slapped Russia with several rounds of economic sanctions over its alleged involvement in Ukrainian crisis. Russia has repeatedly denied the accusations and has responded with a ban on food imports from the United States and its allies that had imposed similar sanctions against Moscow.