'Moscow ready to make steps to improve Russia-US ties'

Moscow is ready to do what it can to break the impasse in relations between Russia and the United States, and is taking seriously President Donald Trump's willingness to forge a normal dialogue, though anti-Russia sentiment in the U.S. establishment was a hindrance, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"We are ready to cover our part of the way to drive the mutual ties from the impasse," Lavrov said in an interview with Germany's DPA news agency published on his ministry's website on Thursday. Lavrov added, however that the situation between the two governments kept worsening due to Washington actions.

"We are taking seriously statements by D. Trump on willingness to set up normal dialogue between our countries," Lavrov said. "If some positive impulses at all come from the U.S. leader, they are being fully offset by soaring Russophobia in the U.S. establishment, which sees our country as a threat to the U.S. political supremacy."