<\/p>\n
Josh Marcus
\nSan Francisco<\/p>\n
Russia<\/a>\u00a0called its US ambassador Anatoly Antonov back home on Wednesday for consultations, as Moscow mulls avoiding what its foreign ministry called an \u201cirreversible degradation<\/a>\u201d of relations with America during the early days of the Biden administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tensions between the two nations are high, following recently declassified reports on Russia\u2019s suspected\u00a0attempts to interfere in the 2020 election<\/a>, US\u00a0condemnation<\/a>\u00a0over the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, and\u00a0Joe Biden<\/a>\u00a0calling\u00a0Vladimir Putin<\/a>\u00a0a \u201ckiller<\/a>\u201d in an interview on ABC News on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe new American administration has been in power for two months, and a symbolic 100-day anniversary is just round the corner, which is an appropriate milestone to try and assess what the Biden team is successful in, and what it\u2019s not,\u201d Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova\u00a0said in a statement<\/a>, according to Russia\u2019s state-owned Sputnik news service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A pause would also allow Americans to \u201cacknowledge the associated risks\u201d of the fraying relationship between the two nations, she added, which \u201cWashington has itself sent into a stalemate in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Mr Biden sounded a similar tone during\u00a0the ABC interview<\/a>, which aired on Wednesday. Following questions from George Stephanopoulos about investigations into Russia-linked cyber attacks and an intelligence report linking the Kremlin to election-related online interference that promoted\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a> and right-wing conspiracy theories, the host asked whether Mr Biden thought the Russian president was a \u201ckiller.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI do,\u201d he responded, and threatened some form of retaliation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n