Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated during a June 27 Rossiya-1 TV broadcast that “channels of communication with Washington are not closed,” despite the worsening relations between the two countries, TASS reported. “Just the day before yesterday a very important telephone conversation between Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov and his American counterpart [Lloyd Austin] took place. There are contacts at other levels and along other lines, along the lines of presidential administrations, in particular along the lines of intelligence services, diplomatic agencies are in contact with each other on their own issues. And this happens on a regular basis.”