In comments today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisted that the Russian government is ready and willing to talk with President-elect Donald Trump on a myriad of issues, particularly nuclear weapons and Syria, and that he believes the two could solve a lot of the world's problems working together.

Lavrov expressed hope for major progress in the US-Russia relationship, saying that he sees a lot of potential areas of cooperation, and is "encouraged" by the Trump transition team's comments, seeing major differences between the incoming administration and the Obama Administration.

Lavrov faulted Obama, saying he had done major harm to US-Russia cooperation, and that he believes a more pragmatic effort to find mutual areas of cooperation, particularly on issues like the war on terror, much bigger deals could be reached.