Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that the state of US-Russia relations is now even worse than during the Cold War. His Wednesday comments during a televised interview might be easily dismissed as hyperbole, given there's not something that's quite equivalent to the Cuban missile crisis happening right now, but it does accurately convey things in terms of lack of simple communications at a diplomatic level. He said it was the "lack of respect" in the current climate that makes things worse.

Lavrov explained Moscow has a desire to normalize ties with Washington but that should the Biden administration refuse respectful dialogue, "we would live in conditions of a 'Cold War' or worse."

"During the Cold War, the tensions were flying high and risky crisis situations often emerged, but there was also a mutual respect," he said as cited in The Associated Press. "It seems to me there is a deficit of it now."