Kremlin: Obama team trying to damage ties with Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin AP FILE PHOTO

MOSCOW — The Kremlin is accusing President Barack Obama’s administration of trying to damage relations with Russia to a degree that would make rebuilding them in the future a challenge.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Thursday that Putin’s telephone phone conversation with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump this week revealed a “shared desire to join efforts in the fight against terrorism” that creates a “good basis for future work on the Syrian problem.”

Russian news agencies report that Ushakov says the timing for a Trump-Putin meeting hasn’t been discussed yet.

He alleges the Obama administration is “doing everything it can to drive bilateral ties into such a deadlock” that a new administration would find it difficult to re-establish productive ties, “if it wishes to do so.”