Lifting the US-imposed sanctions on Russia will be very difficult even if Moscow starts fulfilling the requirements of Washington, noted Russian Ambassador to US, Sergey Kislyak, who completed his mission in July, RIA Novosti reports.

“The economic sanctions, which we have been talking much about recently, are constructively designed so that it is very hard to cancel them in the American conditions, even if someone decides to fulfill all their requirements. But all these requirements are fabricated, and sometimes loutish. But the entire mechanism is designed not to give an opportunity to develop normal economic relations between our countries,” Kislyak said.

He doesn’t consider the current relations between Russia and US to be as complex as during the years of Cold War between the USSR and US. “No, this is not yet a “Cold War,” he said.

Asked when the relations between the two countries will resemble those in that period, the Ambassador joked: “I am not sure I have a sliding rule by which I can measure the distance to it,” Kislyak said.