President Vladimir Putin called for an improvement in ties between Russia and the United States yesterday in an Independence Day message to Barack Obama, urging Washington to treat Moscow as an equal partner.

Relations between the two presidents and countries are at a low ebb following disagreements over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, and over human rights, democracy and defence matters.

“Vladimir Putin also highlighted that Russia and the United States, as countries carrying exceptional responsibility for safeguarding international stability and security, should cooperate not only in the interests of their own nations but also the whole world.”

The telegram underlined a message that Putin has made central to his third term as president – that Russia, like the US a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, must be treated as a world power and on an equal footing two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union.