MOSCOW, Dec 9 — The Kremlin said today that the prisoner exchange deal to swap Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for US basketball star Brittney Griner should not be seen as a step towards improving bilateral relations between Moscow and Washington, Russian state news agencies reported.

"The talks were exclusively on the topic of the exchange. It’s probably wrong to draw any hypothetical conclusions that this may be a step towards overcoming the crisis in bilateral relations,” the TASS news agency quoted Peskov as saying.

"Bilateral relations continue to remain in a sorry state,” he added. — Reuters