Russian President Putin: 'Dialogue is better than confrontation'
According to RT on October 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow always supports continued dialogue with the US. Therefore, the issue of organizing a new summit between the two countries' leaders is temporarily postponed, waiting for the right time.
President Putin reiterated that, during a phone call with his US counterpart on October 16, the idea of the summit and its venue were both proposed by President Donald Trump.
"I agree that such meetings should be well prepared: for both me and the US president, it would be a mistake to approach it lightly and leave after this meeting without the expected results. I must say that the US president agreed with this point of view," President Putin said.
According to the Russian leader, he and Mr. Trump agreed that a number of officials would work to prepare for the summit, but at the initial stage, all progress should be carried out by the two countries' foreign ministers: Sergei Lavrov and Marco Rubio.
"That's what we decided. Now I see that I'm used to statements like: The US President decided to cancel or postpone the meeting. What can I say? In my opinion, dialogue is always better than some confrontation, than some dispute or even more than war. That's why we always supported it, continued dialogue, and now we still support it," President Putin emphasized.
Commenting on the new US sanctions against Russia, the Russian leader said that the restrictions will have a certain negative impact, but "they will not have a significant impact on Russia's economic well-being." President Putin stated that such restrictions today have two aspects: purely political and economic.
President Putin added that these unfriendly actions harm Russia-US relations, which are only just beginning to recover.
"If the volume of our oil and oil products on the world market decreases sharply, prices will rise. What will this lead to? This will lead to a sharp increase in the cost of oil and oil products, including at gas stations, and the United States will be no exception," President Putin stressed.
