The White House criticized the visit of the President of the United Arab Emirates to Russia

We have made it clear that now is not the time to do business as usual with Mr. Putin or the Kremlin,” TASS quoted Kirby as saying at the briefing.

He did not directly answer the question whether Washington regards this visit as "the departure of another traditional ally" of the United States.

Earlier, the UAE reported that the country's president would pay an official visit to Russia to assist "in achieving effective political solutions" to the Ukrainian crisis.