Russia is interested in forging bilateral agreements with the United States on how to co-exist and interact in cyberspace, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for International Cooperation in Information Security Andrei Krutskikh told the Kommersant daily, Eurasia Diary reports citing TASS.

"Russia is always open for dialogue on the pressing issue of cybersecurity with any partner, including the United States. This year, we noticed certain positive signals coming from the US side, with regard to its readiness to somehow start a dialogue with Russia irrespective of the domestic political situation. The newly appointed US Ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan was among those who recently voiced ideas of this kind," the Russian diplomat said.

According to Krutskikh, Moscow welcomes this approach and calls upon its partners in Washington to "restore a normal, de-politicized dialogue on global information security between Russia and the United States."

"What we need is not attempting to change each other’s political views, but to sit at the negotiating table and agree on how we co-exist and interact in the information space. Issues on our present-day agenda are absolutely pressing, including confidence-building measures in cyberspace and efforts against cyber-terrorism and cyber-fraud," the high-ranking Russian diplomat said.

He went on to say that current Russian-US political tensions affect the broad international dialogue on cybersecurity. For example, certain members of the Russian delegation were unable to attend informal UN-backed consultations on international cybersecurity last December due to "United States’ harsh visa policy." "Some people just did not get the US visa in time," Krutskikh said.