Russia would not try to "reset" its relations with the United States at the expense of Ukrainian and Georgian interests, President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Russian NTV aired on July 26.
"We without any jealousy see how other states build their relations with our partners in the international community, including such important as the United States," the Itar-Tass news agency quoted Medvedev as saying.
But he reiterated Russia's opposition for Ukraine and Georgia to be "dragged" into political and military alliances like NATO "against their people's will."
"As far as Ukraine is concerned, everything is utterly simple here -- hold a referendum. If the nation favors presence in some or other military-political alliance, there will be at least a legitimate basis," Medvedev said.
"As for Georgia, it is a question to NATO itself -- for what NATO needs a state that has so many problems," he said.
Medvedev added that NATO itself has gradually come to realize that "the two respected states are not ready yet" to join the alliance.
On Russian-Georgian relations, the president said, "Regimes similar to that of (Georgian President Mikhail) Saakashvili come and go away, but feelings between nations remain."
"I am sure in some time our relations will be restored on a new basis with taking into consideration the formed realities and the tragic pages the relations went through in recent time," he said.
After U.S. President Barack Obama was sworn in, Russia and the United States have been actively engaging in "resetting" bilateral relations that had plummeted to an unprecedented low.
