"Overall, I can tell the United States’ government would certainly prefer to have a stronger relationship with the Russian government," Nauert told reporters.
On Friday, Trump said it was possible that he will meet the Russian president this summer. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Sputnik such possibility.
Since 2014, relations between Russia and the United States have deteriorated amid the crisis in Ukraine. Washington has introduced several rounds of anti-Russia sanctions after Crimea's reunification with Russia and the latter's alleged involvement in the Ukraine conflict.
A new wave of sanctions followed the West's allegations on Russia sponsoring malign cyberactivity, which Moscow called groundless. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that the West did not have a weakest argument to substantiate its claims, adding that such ill-founded accusations have been completely devalued.