Russia recalls envoy to U.S. to discuss Moscow-Washington ties

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov has been summoned back to Moscow for consultations to determine the next steps regarding Russia-U.S. relations, reported Xinhua, quoting the Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

The new U.S. administration has been in office for almost two months, and there is a good reason ahead of the 100-day milestone to assess what the Biden team is doing and what is not, the ministry's spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

"For us, the main thing is to determine ways of rectifying the Russian-American ties, which are in a difficult state and Washington has brought to a dead end in recent years," she said.

Zakharova added that Moscow is interested in preventing the bilateral relations from "irreversible degradation."

It is unclear for how long Antonov will be away from his post in Washington.