More from our News Desk on Medvedev's comments:
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has told an American television channel that a new "reset" in U.S.-Russian relations is "absolutely impossible" while sanctions against his country are in effect.
"Of course not. It is absolutely impossible," Medvedev said when asked during an interview with CNBC whether a reset was possible with U.S. sanctions in place.
In a transcript posted on the Russian government website on October 15, Medvedev said the U.S. sanctions were "destructive."
The United States has imposed several rounds of sanctions to punish Russia for its annexation of Crimea in March and its role in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv and NATO says Moscow has sent troops and weapons to help pro-Russian separatists fight government forces.
Russia denies involvement in the conflict.
RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service has this dramatic video of hundreds of Ukrainian National Guard conscripts who protested in front of the presidential administration building in Kyiv on October 13 to demand their demobilization. As evening fell, they were confronted by injured war veterans telling them to continue the fight against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine:
From a Bloomberg interview with Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb:
Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said President Vladimir Putin’s policy of intimidation shows any goal of forging more harmonious ties between Europe and Russia must now be shelved.
Stubb, who already in 2008 said a five-day war with Georgia betrayed the Kremlin’s preference for military aggression in its foreign policy, says the Russian government has unsettled its former Cold War foes with its erratic behavior.
“We should now for a while forget the idea that Russia will become a regular Western state: it will not,” Stubb said in an interview in Helsinki. “Its behavior is currently very unpredictable.”
Read the full interview here.