Putin warns Europe against sabotaging US Russia rapprochement

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned Western elites against trying to sabotage a potential rapprochement between Russia and the United States, saying Moscow would use its diplomats and intelligence services to thwart such efforts.

Addressing Russias FSB security service, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB and an agency he once led, Putin said he was pleased with the way an attempted reboot in ties between Moscow and Washington was progressing, even though it was early days.

I note that the first contacts with the new American administration inspire certain hopes. There is a reciprocal mood to work to restore intergovernmental ties and to gradually resolve the huge number of systemic and strategic problems that have built up in the worlds security architecture, said Putin.

He went on to hail the fact that Russias current partners were demonstrating what he called pragmatism and realism and - in an apparent reference to Joe Bidens administration - abandoning the ideological cliches of their predecessors which he said had caused a crisis in international relations.

But Putin said it was clear that not all countries were in favour of the idea of warmer ties between the worlds two biggest nuclear powers.

We understand that not everyone is happy with the resumption of Russian-American contacts. Some Western elites are still determined to maintain instability in the world, and these forces will try to disrupt or compromise the dialogue that has begun, said Putin.

We need to be aware of this and use all possibilities when it comes to diplomacy and our intelligence services to disrupt such attempts.

He did not spell out who he had in mind. But his comments looked like a reference to the European Union and Britain, which have raised concerns about the prospect of any Russia-U.S. talks to end