MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Moscow is in the process of establishing contacts with the new US administration, the diplomat said.
"In the process. The meetings will certainly take place," Ryabkov told reporters.
"We are in the process of establishing contacts with colleagues in various spheres. We will continue this work after positions at the lower levels of the American hierarchy start being filled. It has not yet come to that, but we have already got work underway with the new team [of Donald Trump]," Ryabkov told reporters.
"Now attempts of destructively-minded forces continue to, in essence, tie the hands of the new administration so that it could not make a step forward in terms of improving relations with Russia," Ryabkov told reporters.
"We see this, it is also, of course, a complicating factor, but it does not disorient us, on the contrary, it motivates us to engage, with more focus, more energy, application of the entire political will, in constructive work that we hope will ultimately allow us to say that the dark period in our relations with the US is left behind," he said.
On February 1, the US Senate confirmed Tillerson 46-33 as US secretary of state. Lavrov has already expressed readiness to closely work with his new US counterpart.