The Russian Transport Ministry is ready to begin a dialogue on resuming air traffic with the United States if the American side is interested, Minister Andrey Nikitin told reporters.

However, this is not being discussed, he noted.

"We are ready to start talking about it if the American side is interested. There are no such talks yet. But as our president says, we are not closing ourselves off from anything, and we are always ready for dialogue," the minister said.

Moscow has made specific proposals to Washington to resume direct flights, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS earlier.