The United States opens the door to negotiations with Russia regarding the deployment of missiles and military exercises | international

The United States presents itself with one lime and one sand before the new round of talks with Russia on Ukraine to be held on Monday in Geneva. US officials said in a phone call on Saturday that the Joe Biden administration is opening the door to negotiations with the Kremlin on issues such as the deployment of missiles and the scope of military exercises by the two sides in the region if pressure on the country eases. With journalists, but also raises a set of deep-rooted economic sanctions If Vladimir Putin intervenes, it is a fear encouraged by the Russian leader By strengthening the presence of troops on the Ukrainian border.

Washington and Moscow will come to the negotiating table seven months after the summit between Biden and Putin, held in the same city last June, that set the tone for what was the early part of the year: The interest of both parties is not to continue escalating tension and mistrust between the two parties. This time the leaders will not participate. The US delegation will be led by US Under Secretary of State Wendy Schmarn and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. The context has also changed: the Kremlin has massed tens of thousands of soldiers on the border with Ukraine, and the United States has raised the tone.

Although, by far, we would prefer to de-escalate [esta crisis] Through diplomatic channels, if Russia chooses the other path, we are more than willing, in alignment with our partners and allies, to impose heavy costs through financial sanctions, export controls targeting key industries, strengthening NATO positions in Allied territory and increasing security. support for Ukraine,” the aforementioned US administration sources explained on Saturday.

Some restrictions that allies are considering will affect US products that are exported to the country, as well as some products manufactured abroad, but are under the jurisdiction of a North American country or others with a certain percentage of the US composition, as Reuters identified a source familiar with this matter. In short, Russia could become part of the group of countries most sanctioned by the United States with regard to foreign trade, a club that includes Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria.

The publication of those details sets the stage for Monday’s appointment, which Washington says brings “realism” rather than pessimism. Any agreement on maneuvers and missiles, yes, the Biden government assures, will be made consensual with Ukraine and with NATO allies. In fact, during the week contacts will continue in the already multilateral sphere. Following the Geneva talks, a special meeting of the NATO-Russia Council will be held in Brussels on Wednesday and a session of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna on Thursday.

Moscow comes to the negotiating table at the request of Legal guarantees that NATO will not carry out military reinforcements on the European borders of Russia, Especially on the borders of Ukraine. In a draft proposal announced in mid-December, on the occasion of a conference call between Biden and Putin, the Kremlin proposes that NATO take over “the obligation to prevent NATO’s expansion to other countries, including the accession of Ukraine” and abandon military exercises in that region, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Sources from the Biden administration have already warned that they initially hit the bone. And they indicated, on Saturday, that it is not possible for Moscow to decide “other countries that could be allies.”

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