"Russia’s support for that kind of horrible regime [in Syria], that is a party to that kind of a conflict, is something that has to be drawn into question… As well as Russia’s subversive actions in Europe," McMaster said in a Sunday interview.
McMaster did not specify what he meant by "subversive actions."
The security adviser added that the time came to have "those tough discussions" and "then also to find areas of cooperation."
Earlier on Sunday, Russia's upper house speaker Valentina Matvienko said that Moscow was not "aiming at keeping Assad at any cost," but was "against forced regime change from abroad."A wave of allegations in media that Russia may be interfering or planning to interfere in European elections was partly the result of US Intelligence Community's January unsubstantiated report claiming that Moscow may have meddled in the US 2016 presidential elections.
Russia has repeatedly denounced the allegations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow has not been shown any proof of its alleged interference.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Russia avoided actions that could be interpreted as meddling in the election process in other countries.
