BOSTON, November 8 (RIA Novosti) — Russia is not considering imposing sanctions against the United States in the field of scientific cooperation on account of the benefits the partnership brings, Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak said Saturday.
"Russia was and is an open country that takes interest in normal and mutually beneficial cooperation. I cannot speak for the US government, obviously, but I don't know of any sanctions that would be formally in place and that would prohibit [scientific] cooperation," Kislyak said at a meeting with the US-based Russian-American Scientists Association (RASA) in Boston, Massachusetts.
"As for us, we are not going to impose any kind of sanctions that would curb scientific cooperation," he vowed.
The diplomat stressed Moscow was "interested" in good relations between Russian and American scientists. He added Russia needed its universities to be integrated more tightly into the international system of scientific publications, one of the basic criteria in the rankings of universities.
Relations between Moscow and Washington soured following Crimea's reunification with Russia earlier this year.
In the wake of the Ukrainian crisis, the Obama administration winded down many cooperation projects with Russia, including those in the space exploration.
