The US and Russia met again to discuss the situation in Ukraine and, once again, left the meeting without much progress. This Friday (21), those responsible for diplomacy in both countries, Antony Blinken, on the American side, and Sergei Lavrov, on the Russian side, spoke in Geneva, Switzerland.
After the meeting, the speeches of President Vladimir Putin’s chancellor, at a press conference, did not deviate from the usual: he attacked NATO, the western military alliance, denied accusations that Russia will invade Ukraine and said that Friday’s meeting would not it was the end of the negotiations.
Lavrov also said that Blinken promised to send formal responses to Russian demands: a guarantee that former Soviet republics such as Ukraine, Georgia or Moldova would not join NATO and the withdrawal of troops from the military club of ex-communist countries, curbing the group’s presence in the Russian neighborhoods.
On all previous occasions, such as a meeting between representatives of the Western group and the Russian government, the demands were denied, and the club’s general secretary, Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg, although he celebrated the existence of the meeting, said there was “a risk of armed conflict in Europe”.
Friday’s meeting is another in a series of meetings after Moscow deployed more than 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border, raising alarm among Western countries that Putin could invade the country. The movement recalls 2014, when the overthrow of the pro-Kremlin government in Kiev prompted Russia to annex Crimea and support the civil war of ethnic Russian separatists in Donbass.
The existence of territorial disputes is a formal impediment to Ukraine’s entry into NATO, whose rules bar the entry of countries in these conditions – which explains, in part, Moscow’s stance.
For the head of Russian diplomacy, who has not ruled out a new summit between Presidents Joe Biden and Putin, as occurred precisely in Geneva at the beginning of the Democrat’s term at the head of the United States, the American answers will tell if the dialogue is on the right track.
While Lavrov says he expects emotions to cool down, Russia’s latest moves suggest otherwise. This Thursday (20), the Kremlin announced the holding of naval exercises with Iran and China, two of the biggest US adversaries today. Earlier, Moscow sent troops and military equipment to Belarus for joint exercises due to begin in February.
The Russians also threatened to withdraw from the talks and, pulling out a Cold War-era weapon, suggested they might send troops to Venezuela and Cuba, positioning themselves close to the US.
The reaction to the announcements and statements had repercussions, but mainly in the field of rhetoric: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, meeting with Lavrov in Moscow, said that the cost of defending Kiev will be great – and Germany is willing to pay it.
She was referring, in effect, to Nord Stream 2, in case the energy is used as a weapon by the Russians. The gas pipeline links Germany to Russia and was completed recently, but its operation has been suspended and not yet started, with the possibility of being authorized only in June. On Thursday, leaders from the United Kingdom, France and Germany, who met with Blinken in Berlin, also endeavored to demonstrate, through public statements, unity in defense of Ukraine.
Boris Johnson, who is struggling to hold on to the post of UK prime minister after a series of internal crises, said that “if Russia makes any kind of incursion into Ukraine, on any scale, it will be a disaster, not just for Ukraine as well as Russia”.
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