The State Department blames Russia for the deterioration of relations with the United States

During the briefing, he listed US grievances against Russia, including Moscow's "attacks" on American democracy in 2016 and 2020.

He also recalled "awards to the Taliban for American soldiers" in Afghanistan and "malicious cyber operations of Russia", as well as the prosecution of Alexei Navalny and "Russian aggression in Ukraine."

“The truth is that we continue to pursue a stable and predictable relationship with Russia,” Price said.

He added that the presence of deep disagreements with Russia "does not mean that there will be no areas of tactical coincidence" of interests.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the multifaceted efforts of the United States to contain Russia had led to the accumulation of tensions in bilateral relations.

In the summer of 2020, it became known that the Pentagon did not have any facts confirming the information published in The New York Times about Russia's alleged ties with the Taliban.

US intelligence has also previously ruled that reports of Russian-attributed attempts to award a bounty to militants associated with the Taliban * for the assassination of the US military were unreliable.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called the publication of The New York Times "unpretentious stuffing."

* "Taliban" - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 14, 2003.