Russia’s top diplomat: US policy toward Moscow is ‘dumb’

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called U.S. policy toward the nation “dumb” on Thursday.

The comment comes as relations between Washington and Moscow have heated up as President Biden signals a tougher stance.

The U.S. imposed a wave of sanctions on Russia last month over its use of chemical weapons against political dissenters, including the poisoning of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Lavrov made the comment in response to a question about the U.S. imposing more sanctions, The Associated Press reported. He described U.S. policy as “deadlocked and even dumb,” and added that the U.S. has failed to achieve its goals in the past with previous sanctions.

“Such actions have taught us one thing: We need to rely on ourselves because the U.S. and its allies aren’t reliable partners,” Lavrov said during a visit to Kazakhstan, according to the AP. He further said that Russia “will respond to any unfriendly steps.”

Biden said during an interview with ABC News last month that Russian President Vladimir Putin would “pay a price” after a report from the intelligence community revealed that Russia tried to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.

Also during the interview, Biden responded “I do” when he was asked if he felt that Putin was a killer.

The interview prompted Russia to recall its ambassador to Washington and warn of a potential “irreversible deterioration in relations.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry said recently that the U.S. refused to hold a live-broadcast discussion between Biden and Russia amid the souring diplomacy. 

The Biden administration is also hearing calls to respond to the so-called SolarWinds hack, which impacted multiple federal agencies and which U.S. intelligence has concluded was probably carried out by Russia.