STRASBOURG, October 2 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova - Washington will always try to hurt Moscow as hard as it can, though it will never help the international community to solve any conflict, including the one in Ukraine, British member of the PACE Mike Hancock said Thursday.
"Unfortunately, the Americans will always try to be the leader in the field of payback and punishing. The Americans are determined in some way or another to hurt Russia as hard as they can. And that is to be regretted. Because that won't solve the problem in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world," Hancock told RIA Novosti on the sidelines of the PACE fall session.
He also urged to establish dialogue, stressing it is a prerequisite for solving the Ukrainian crisis.
"Dialogue needs both sides to be able to talk, but that's not just the leaders who have to talk, that is the people in those countries who have to be able to talk and to assimilate information," Hancock said.
The relations between Russia and the United States have deteriorated amid Ukrainian crisis, as Washington kept blaming Moscow for meddling in Ukraine's internal affairs.
Over the past few months, the United States has introduced several rounds of economic sanctions against Russia, and persuaded its allies to add Russian companies and individuals to their own blacklists.
Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement in the Ukrainian conflict, and in contrary, played a vital role in the de-escalation of the crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a peace plan to resolve the conflict two days before Kiev and the eastern regions of Ukraine reached a ceasefire agreement on September 5 in Minsk.
