Peskov said there were no contacts between the press secretaries of the Russian and US leaders

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there have been no contacts between the press secretaries of the heads of state of Russia and the United States since Barack Obama's presidency. He said this in an interview with TASS on November 20.

"We haven't had contacts along the lines [of press secretaries] for a long time. I remember the last time I had contacts with my colleagues under President Obama. Then after that we didn't have good relations anymore," the agency quoted Peskov as saying.

The Kremlin spokesman also added that he had no contact with the previous press secretaries of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, including during the preparation of the leaders' summit in Geneva.

Earlier, on November 19, Peskov named a condition for a dialog with the United States under Trump on the issue of peace in Ukraine. According to him, Trump's willingness to listen to Russia is a condition for dialog.

Also on that day, Peskov said that Moscow is open to normalizing relations with the United States, but Washington must take retaliatory actions. He also emphasized that it was not the Russian Federation that started the sanctions race.

Before that, on November 6, Peskov said that relations between Washington and Moscow are at a historic low point. He noted that the Russian side is always ready for dialog, which is based on justice, equality and concern of the two countries.

In late August, newly elected US President Donald Trump claimed that building good relations between Russia and the US was the right approach. According to him, "getting along with Russia is good, not bad, it's smart."