Russia and the US have decided to move direct talks from Istanbul to Moscow and Washington, DC

Russia and the United States have decided to move direct negotiations from Istanbul to their respective capitals.

This was announced by Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Alexander Darchiev, in an interview with Russian media outlets.

“I’ve already said that there’s still a long way to go before Russian-American relations recover. The process is difficult and is being hampered not only by opponents of the White House in the so-called ‘deep state,’ but also by the ‘hawks’ in Congress, where there is a well-established anti-Russian lobby,” said Darchiev.

According to him, the new round of U.S.-Russia talks on “diplomatic irritants” will take place very soon in Moscow.

It’s worth recalling that the Kremlin previously stated that the U.S. has expressed a number of positions during negotiations that align with Moscow’s stance.

Meanwhile, polling data shows that the number of Russians who view the United States as a hostile country has significantly declined. Kirill Dmitriev, President Vladimir Putin’s representative in talks with the U.S., called this data a “historic shift” and attributed it to the dialogue between Putin and former President Donald Trump.