Calling Russia ‘threat to humanity’ puts Obama’s sanity in doubt - Medvedev

                                                                                                                                                                                                            

October 15, 2014    www.RT.com

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, left, gives interview to CNBS in Moscow. Right: journalist Geoff Cutmore.(RIA Novosti / Ekaterina Shtukina)                                           

The Russian PM has suggested that Obama’s charges against Russia were caused by a “brain aberration” and added that such rhetoric saddened him.

“I am very upset by the fact that President Obama, while  speaking from the United Nations’ podium and listing the threats  and challenges humanity is currently facing,

put Ebola in first  place,

the Russian Federation second and

the Islamic State  organization was only in the third place.

I don’t even want to  comment on this, this is some sort of aberration in the  brain,” Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with CNBC  television.

  The top Russian official stressed that his country was not  isolating itself from the rest of the world, but sought mutually  beneficial cooperation with foreign nations. “We want to  communicate with all civilized peoples on friendly grounds. Of  course, this includes our partners from the United States of  America, but for this the situation must be leveled,” Medvedev  said.

  However, the Russian PM also noted that the Western sanctions  have inflicted considerable damage to Russia’s cooperation with  the US, and without cancellation of this policy there can be no  return to partnership.

“Let us be frank, it was not us who invented these sanctions,  they were invented by our partners in the international  community. As our saying goes, let God be their judge. Without  any doubt we can survive these sanctions, I am sure that sometime  later the sanctions will evaporate, simply cease to exist. But  there is no doubt that they have dealt some damage to our  relations.”

Medvedev ruled out the possibility of an immediate reset in  relations between Russia and the West, adding that he expected  the process to composed of at least two stages.

“What sort of reset can be there under such conditions? We  must first distance from this all and return to a normal  position, at least to the starting position and only then we can  start elaborating on the development of relations in the  future,” he said.

  The Russian PM also stressed that Russia can and will find new  partners for routine trade and normal investment projects.