U.S. to continue cooperating with Russia and its next elected president

The United States will continue cooperating with the Russian Federation, no matter who would win the next presidential election, U.S. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said. Last Saturday Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to run for president in next year's election, ending months of speculation over which man would run for the post. "The fact is that the President has pursued a reset in our relations with Russia with not a particular leader but the government of Russia. And the progress that we've made, which has been well recognized, has come with the entire Russian leadership. That includes President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin," Carney told journalists on late Monday. "So we will continue to pursue our relations with Russia in a way that advance American interests and we believe improve our ties and are beneficial in ways - beneficial for the American people and the Russian people," he added. Carney's words echoed the position earlier voiced by Mark Toner, a U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson, who said that "regardless of who wins the next election [in Russia], our [U.S.] priorities remain the same."