As he said that the West has much to do in order to restore Moscow’s trust, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was ready to restore normal relations with the United States and the European Union.

Russia is ready to restore full-fledged relations with both the United States and the European Union, but only on equal terms, Lavrov said Thursday , according to Sputnik.

“We are not interested in turning away from anyone. We are ready to resume normal, full-fledged relations with the European Union, with the United States, but only on an equal basis,” Lavrov said.

Western countries have a lot of work to do to restore Russia’s trust, Lavrov added.

“Our Western partners must do a lot to restore the Russian Federation’s trust in them, to restore the predictability in European affairs,” Lavrov said.

Ties between Russia and the West suffered a severe blow after Crimea became part of Russia following a referendum in 2014 and the West imposed political and economical sanctions on Russia. The Kremlin has repeatedly refuted the accusations and introduced countermeasures, banning a list of EU products.

Meanwhile, Lavrov  noted that the United States is shying away from talks with Russia on cybersecurity issues.

“A year ago, through the prosecutor general’s office, we offered the United States to hold talks on cooperation in the cybersecurity field,” Lavrov said.

“In November last year, we suggested holding serious expert talks. There was no response. In January this year, I reminded [US Secretary of State] John Kerry that we would like to receive some sort of answer… I reminded him in May, and I reminded him now, when we held a meeting on Syria in Geneva a week ago. He was surprised that there had been no response yet. Meanwhile, the US Department of Justice, where the request was sent, has refused to send a written response to our direct reminder,” he added.

Source: Sputnik