Trump's No Better Than Obama in Foreign Policy, Russia Says

U.S. President Donald Trump is no better than his predecessor Barack Obama when it comes to relations with Russia and there’s little hope of better ties, according to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Many of the Trump administration’s policies “don’t really differ from Obama’s,” Lavrov said in an interview with Italian newspaper Libero, according to a transcript published Thursday on the Foreign Ministry’s website. “Moreover, the anti-Russian lobby in Washington is provoking ever more unfriendly actions in various areas, including widening unilateral sanctions.”

Lavrov said that a “wave of Russophobic hysteria” in the U.S. meant that “it’s hard for the moment to expect any positive steps from Washington.”

Russian frustration is mounting at the absence of a breakthrough in relations with the U.S. under Trump, who came to power in January promising a new era after ties plunged to their worst level since the Cold War during Obama’s administration. Instead, relations have soured further amid intensifying U.S. investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election campaign to help Trump win. Russia and Trump have repeatedly denied the accusations.

Lavrov criticized the Trump administration over North Korea on Thursday, saying the U.S. should make clear whether it’s seeking a “pretext to destroy” Kim Jong Un’s regime following Pyongyang’s latest missile test. U.S. plans for joint military exercises with South Korea next month and its calls for new sanctions to isolate North Korea seem designed to provoke Kim into further reckless acts, Lavrov told reporters at a Collective Security Treaty Organization summit in Minsk, Belarus, according to RIA Novosti news service.