Moscow, November 30 (RHC-Agencies) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says that to legislatively declare Russia the United States’ adversary is stupid and irresponsible.

In an interview with Italy’s Libero newspaper, Lavrov added that as hatred against Russia has spread widely overseas, the potential of cooperation betwee the two countries  in global and bilateral affairs remains untapped to a large extent.

According to the Russian top diplomat, the situation concerning Russian-US relations remain extremely challenging.

"The Washington establishment has been overwhelmed by a surge of anti-Russian sentiment, provoked by certain political forces unwilling to put up with the results of last year’s presidential election," he noted.

"The US authorities’ decision to close the Russian Consulate General in San Francisco and the seizure of five diplomatic facilities, which are our state property, was an unprecedented move," Lavrov pointed out.

"It means that at the moment we can’t really expect Washington to take any positive steps," the Russian foreign minister noted.

Lavrov recalled that the policies introduced by the Trump Administration are similar to the actions of his predecessor, Barack Obama, pointing to US sanctions on Russia and continued NATO build-up near Russian borders.

“Unfortunately, many actions of Donald Trump’s team are inertial and, in fact, are little different from the line of Barack Obama,” Lavrov told the Italian newspaper.