MOSCOW - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that "two-faced policy" of the United States was to blame for the death of Russian general Valery Asapov in Syria, RIA news agency quoted him as saying on Monday.

"The death of the Russian commander is the price, the bloody price for the two-faced American policy in Syria," Ryabkov told reporters, according to RIA.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday the general had been killed by shelling near Deir al-Zor.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Maria Tsvetkova) ((maria.tsvetkova@thomsonreuters.com; +7 495 775 1242;))