America is the only superpower: Vladimir Putin

Accepting the United States is probably the world’s sole superpower, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow was ready to work with Washington.

Speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, Mr Putin said: “America is a great power. Today, probably, the only superpower. We accept that.”

“We want to and are ready to work with the United States,” Mr Putin added.

Hinting to the US-EU sanctions on Russia in response to its military actions in Ukraine, Mr Putin said: “The world needs such strong nations, like the US. And we need them. But we don’t need them constantly getting mixed up in our affairs, instructing us how to live, preventing Europe from building a relationship with us.”

When asked about presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, Mr Putin called him as a “flamboyant” or “colourful” man.

Mr Putin also spoke about the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, saying he did not work much with her directly when she was the secretary of state. “She probably has her own view of US-Russian relations,” he said. The Russian President, however, praised her husband and former US President Bill Clinton. “We had a very nice relationship,” the Guardian quoted Mr Putin as saying.

Meanwhile, Russia said on Sunday it had reached an agreement with the United States to improve coordination between their military operations in Syria, where they are backing opposing sides of a civil war and launching airstrikes.

Russia’s defence ministry said it was pushing Washington to help produce a shared map of the positions of fighting forces to avoid incidents, a day after Washington accused Moscow of attacking US-backed insurgents there.

Moscow’s intervention on the side of President Bashar al-Assad, alongside Western backing for rebel groups opposing him, has raised fears of a wider international confrontation in the war.

Russia’s defence ministry said military officials from both countries had agreed on the need to improve coordination during a video conference. There was no immediate confirmation from Washington.

“The exchange of views about the incident was carried out in a constructive way with the both sides aiming to improve the coordination on fighting the terrorist organisations in Syria and in order to avert any incidents during military operations in this country,” Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

The Pentagon said on Saturday it had questioned Moscow over Russian air strikes conducted against US-backed Syrian Opposit-ion forces last week, accusing Moscow of failing to heed US warnings.

Mr Konashenkov dismissed the allegation, saying the Russian strikes hit about 300 km away from territory where the United States had said Opposition forces were operating.

He said Russia had notified the US-led coalition about the targets it was planning to strike.

“The Russian defence ministry for the past few months has been proposing to its American colleagues to draw a unified map, which would contain information about the location of the forces which were active in Syria. However, no material progress has been made on this issue,” the spokesman said.

Russia, which has been bombing Opposition-held areas, is blamed by the Opposition and rights activists for causing hundreds of civilian deaths and targeting hospitals, schools and infrastructure in what they say are indiscriminate attacks.

Moscow has repeatedly dismissed the allegations.