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Victoria Nuland, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, made remarks on cooperation with Russia at a daily press briefing in Washington, according to the official website of the U.S. Department of State.  

“In light of the recent events, if you go back to the USAID closing down there and then over the holiday, the adoptions, how would you characterize the state of U.S.-Russia relations now? And is Russia a U.S. ally?” asked a reporter. 

Ms Nuland said, “Well, as you know, a U.S. – the word “ally” usually applies to a country with whom you have mutual defense treaty obligations. Russia’s long been a partner of the United States on a number of issues where we can work together. I think our overall approach remains to try to cooperate with Russia as much as we can on as many issues as we can that we share, whether they’re bilateral issues, whether they’re regional issues like Nagorno-Karabakh, or whether they’re global issues like Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, et cetera.” 

“But we’re also going to be very clear and very frank when we disagree, as we do with regard to human rights practices, quality of democracy in Russia, and as we have in the past on Syria and other things, as we have expressed our concerns about the decisions that they’ve made on AID and on adoptions, which, frankly, we think hurt Russians most of all,” she added. 

“So we will continue to pursue a path of cooperation where we can, but being very frank when we disagree,” Ms Nuland concluded.