Russia denounces US refusal of Biden-Putin public dialogue

 Sylvie Claire / Mars 22, 2021

Russia regretted on Monday the refusal, according to it, of the United States to organize a public dialogue between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, at the initiative of the Russian president, after their verbal exchange of arms last week.

This is another wasted opportunity to break the deadlock in Russian-American relations that exists because of Washington's fault, said the Russian Foreign Ministry in a terse statement. Vladimir Putin had proposed to his American counterpart a public dialogue by video conference to discuss their multiple differences. According to Russian diplomacy, the American side did not support the proposal of Mr. Putin who wanted to discuss bilateral problems that have accumulated and the theme of strategic stability. He had launched this idea on Thursday evening after an astonishing exchange by interposed media, the Russian president having answered by it is the one who says it who is to Mr. Biden, who described him as killer. 

Mr. Putin had proposed that the video conference take place on Friday or Monday, explaining that he was unavailable during the weekend because of a stay in the taiga. In reaction to Mr. Biden's remarks, Moscow has also, exceptionally, recalled its ambassador to Washington Anatoli Antonov for consultations. The Kremlin also denounced Monday the multiplication of sanctions against Russia, Washington having adopted new ones last week. The determination to sanction our adversaries, especially the United States, continues to grow, noted the spokesman for the Russian presidency Dmitry Peskov, at a press conference. The U.S. president displays since his arrival at the White House in January a great firmness towards the Kremlin, as opposed to the benevolence often reproached to his predecessor Donald Trump even in his Republican camp. But the gun battle between Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin precipitates the U.S.-Russian relationship in a new spiral of tensions, while the two powers also said they wanted to cooperate on issues of common interest. The Russian-American relations and more generally Russian-Western relations have been poisonous for years: annexation of Crimea, war in Ukraine, conflict in Syria or poisoning and imprisonment of the Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny.