‘Destructive’ US approach is blocking cooperation, Lavrov tells Pompeo during phone call

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Washington’s “destructive” approach towards ties with Moscow is impeding bilateral cooperation. In a phone call on Thursday, Lavrov also called for an immediate end to the prosecution of Russian citizen Maria Butina “under a far-fetched pretext and again drew attention to the situation with [Konstantin] Yaroshenko, [Viktor] Bout and other Russians who are in US prisons in violation of the procedures stipulated by the bilateral 1999 treaty on mutual legal assistance,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. It added that Pompeo raised the issue of Ukrainian national Oleg Sentsov “serving his sentence on charges of terrorist activity, with appropriate explanations provided to him,” TASS reports.