NEW YORK – On the one hand, US Secretary of State Blinken, who threatens “severe consequences” if Moscow attacks Ukraine again; on the other hand, his Russian colleague Lavrov, who accuses Westerners of bringing the continent to the brink of war, and calls for a new pact for European security. The good thing is that the two talked to each other, on the sidelines of the OSCE summit in Stockholm, and perhaps presidents Biden and Putin will soon do it again. Everything else, however, was and remains dangerously in the balance.
The meeting took place the day after the Riga meeting between NATO foreign ministers, who discussed the deployment of Moscow soldiers on the border with the national territory of Kiev, and how to respond to avoid a new invasion. “It is now up to Russia – said Blinken – to ease current tensions by reversing the recent accumulation of troops, restoring forces to normal positions in peacetime, and refraining from further intimidation and attempts to destabilize Ukraine”.
The head of US diplomacy added that he had made “our deep concerns, and our determination to hold Russia accountable for its actions, including working with European allies to impose serious costs and consequences on it, very clear, should it take further aggressive action against it. Ukraine “. To those who asked him to explain in detail what he meant, he replied that the US is ready to “respond in a resolute way, even with a series of high-impact economic measures that we have refrained from using in the past”. His spokesman, Ned Price, concluded that the secretary “stressed that the best path forward is diplomacy, combined with the full implementation of the Minsk agreements, a process that the United States is willing and ready to support.”
Lavrov replied that Russia “does not want any conflict”, but retains “the right to choose the ways to guarantee its legitimate security interests. And let’s not forget, of course, the proclaimed principle of indivisibility and security, even in the OSCE. in the NATO Russia Council, which affirms that no one has the right to strengthen their own security at the expense of that of others “. He then warned that “NATO’s further eastward advance will certainly affect Moscow’s fundamental interests” in terms of security.
The positions were and remain distant, because while the US and the European Union want to be free to conclude any agreement with the countries of the East, if their democratically elected governments want it, the Kremlin intends to restore its influence over most of the territories that belonged to the Soviet empire, in addition to seeing the annexation of Crimea recognized. As Fiona Hill, former director of Russia at the National Security Council of the White House explained, Putin “demands reciprocity, and a new agreement on European security, which is the old one from the Cold War. He wants the neutralization of Ukraine and Belarus. , the recognition of the annexation of Crimea, and the veto power over countries such as Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Armenia “. Perhaps he will talk to Biden again soon, but these are unacceptable conditions for Washington.
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