Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska CNBC

Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska, a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Sunday that Moscow and Washington are more interested in "muscle flexing" than improving their relationship. Asked whether he has hopes of thawing tensions between Russia and the West while economic sanctions are in place, Deripaska replied: "The way I see it, from the U.S. side, it is impossible." "If you look at the reality, Russian people (and) American people, they don't hate each other," he told CNBC's Geoff Cutmore during an exclusive interview in Moscow. "In the heart of the Russian people, I think there is room to go and start a new page but the problem is all of this muscle flexing from both sides." Deripaska on Friday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury Department to lift the sanctions it placed on him last year as part of a wider retaliation for Russian interference in the U.S. election and what the Treasury described as its "malign activity around the globe."

The billionaire commodities magnate claims his wealth dropped by 81 percent, or $7.5 billion, as a result of the sanctions, and that he's become "a victim of this country's political infighting." His companies EN+ and Rusal, the latter of which is the world's second biggest aluminum producer, came under sanctions as part of the U.S. measures against the Russian government in April of 2018. The lawsuit is the latest shot in a long series of provocations and flare-ups between Russia and the U.S., whose relations are seen by many as at their worst since the Cold War.

'Are you serious?'

Deripaska told CNBC that both countries are prepared to spend trillions of dollars on defense despite that more than half of such an expenditure was likely to be "unnecessary." When asked whether the prospect of a change of president in the U.S. next year might present an opportunity for improved ties between Washington and Moscow, Deripsaka replied: "Are you serious?" "Everything will be the same in four years," he said. "Only a new generation will do something. This (generation) would prefer to have fighting." Russia's economy tanked in 2014 in part thanks to U.S. sanctions enacted over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, and Russian officials regularly slam the latest slate of Treasury sanctions what they say is "anti-Russian hysteria" conjured up by the West. Moscow and Washington have been on opposing sides of a number of international conflicts, including in Syria, Ukraine, Iran, and most recently Venezuela. Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Russia of "standing with its Venezuelan cronies" in order to "protect a Moscow-friendly regime." His comments came shortly after the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions against Russian bank Evrofinance Mosnarbank for helping Venezuela's state oil firm PDVSA dodge U.S. financial restrictions. Both countries have now withdrawn from an 1987 international nuclear treaty, and Putin in December warned the threat of a nuclear war should not be discounted. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that Russia does not want an "arms race," but was ready to respond to military threats if necessary.

Sanctions and more sanctions