Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov told VGTRK journalist Pavel Zarubin that Russia is open to dialogue with the incoming Trump administration, but is “calmly waiting” for actions, rather than statements. TASS reported that Ushakov said: “Our president [Vladimir Putin] has repeatedly said that we are ready for a dialogue and are calmly waiting for signals. Usually the president or leader who comes to power is the first to make the call. We are not sitting and waiting. We calmly understand the whole situation and we know that sooner or later we will receive some signals from Washington. We are ready for them. We are ready to listen to the relevant proposals and respond to them constructively,” he explained.
Ushakov added: “For a start, after all, it is necessary to agree on the fundamental issues. When some agreements have been reached, or are somewhere near in sight, then it will be the turn of practical issues, which in the case of a high-level agreement on some important step, it seems to me, will be easier to resolve,” he said.