Russia indicated that the talks were continuing and considered the war talks still “hysteria”. However, the solution is in the hands of Putin and Biden, writes Pekka Hakala, HS’s foreign journalist.
Fear Russian armed attack on Ukraine grew over the weekend after White House security adviser Jake Sullivan had warned of Russia’s plans. Sullivan said the United States has intelligence that Russia is preparing for an attack on Wednesday.
According to this forecast, the attack would immediately follow the German Chancellor Olaf Scholtzin Tuesday’s visit to Moscow, which would remain the last and formal attempt at a reconciliation.
Both U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence sources have previously predicted that Russia could take military action against Ukraine during February, no later than the end of the Beijing Olympics next Sunday.
Russia has gathered some 130,000 troops near the Ukrainian border since the turn of September-October. In December, Moscow presented a long list of demands to the United States and NATO countries for new arms restrictions and an end to NATO military expansion. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared the responses it received last week completely inadequate.
President of the United States Joe Biden and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin held a more than an hour-long telephone conversation on Saturday to resolve the crisis without any progress being made. According to the White House, Biden threatened Putin with relentless retaliation if the Russians seized their weapons.
The Kremlin’s information line, on the other hand, was quite moderate. The Putin administration did not publish an ordinary, scant report on the presidential telephone conversation. Instead, Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov liked the reporters press conference the content of the call.
According to Ushakov, the presidential debate was “businesslike and balanced in tone” despite “US-instigated hysteria over Russia’s alleged immediate invasion of Ukraine”.
“Many of the proposals promoted in the debate were part of Washington’s January 26 responses to Russia’s proposals,” Ushakov said.
Advisor the main message, then, was that something was promoted in the telephone conversation after all.
However, the Kremlin’s main message seems to be that it was Ušakov who spoke to reporters. He served as Russia’s ambassador to the United States from 1998 to 2008. He then became Prime Minister Putin’s foreign policy adviser to the Putin’s shadow administration, which was established as deputy governor. Dmitry Medvedev for a four-year presidency at the headquarters of the Moscow government, the White House.
Since then, Ushakov has been not only a U.S. expert but also Putin’s creditor, appearing quite sparingly in public. The set-up shows that Putin has already achieved one important goal: he has forced the U.S. president into serious bilateral talks on an agenda drawn up by Vladimir Putin.
On Monday, Putin also released a one-word statement referring to the Russian president’s intention to continue on the negotiating path for the time being.
Foreign minister Namely, on Monday, Lavrov presented Putin with the responses of the EU and NATO countries to a letter sent by the Russian Foreign Ministry demanding that its western neighbors explain their willingness to peace.
“None of my ministerial colleagues responded to my personal letter,” Lavrov complained to the president. Interfaxine by. “We only got two little papers, another official [Jens] From StoltenbergFrom the Secretary General of NATO, and another official [Josep] From Borrell, From the EU Chief Diplomat. They replied that do not worry, we need to continue the dialogue, the most important thing is to ease tensions around Ukraine. “
Lavrov said he drafted a new ten-page letter for his evasive colleagues.
“Of course, this cannot go on indefinitely, but at this point I would continue and expand the discussions,” Lavrov said.
“Horoš” (good is), was Putin’s response.
For Europeans however, the ten-page indictments and demands sent to the leaders from Moscow to embrace the world are a mere spray, as Russia sees the United States as its main opponent and Putin as its only real negotiating partner.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi however, there is a small exception when it comes to Ukraine, as Biden can only make promises on his own behalf in the end.
Zelensky’s regime indicted peace on Sunday when Ukraine’s British ambassador Vadym Prystaiko gave an interview To the BBC. In it, he said his government was showing “flexibility” in Ukraine’s application for NATO membership.
In other words, Ukraine could withdraw or freeze its 2008 application for NATO membership. Prystaiko Peru their messages in public on Monday, but the message had already rushed around the world.
However, Ukraine’s aspiration to join NATO and the EU was enshrined in the Ukrainian Constitution in February 2019. There would hardly be a qualified majority in Parliament to amend the constitution again, so Zelenskyi can only make promises on his own behalf and they cannot extend beyond the 2024 presidential election.
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