U.S. President-elect Donald Trump gestures at his first press conference since winning the election in November in New York on Jan. 11, 2017, when he said "it was Russia" behind the cyberattacks targetting the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

MOSCOW, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Russia is ready to restore relations with the United States, but does not expect this process to be easy, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

"We do not expect easiness in the relations with the United States and we have never expected it. We are looking realistically at our bilateral relations," she told a news briefing.

She said Moscow is "open and ready" for a normal, pragmatic and realistic dialogue with Washington in a working format, despite the existing difficulties and different attitudes toward various issues.

Zakharova said Russia and the United States have shared views on some issues and there are common interests and goals.

But the spokeswoman said U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is "not pro-Russian, but pro-American."

She said Moscow expects Trump to defend the interests of his country using all means available to him, on the basis of pragmatism, international law, and acting in a civilized way.