Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, 73, said that 45-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have been in touch to discuss security issues at the Russian ebassy in Washington, D.C. and U.S. embassy in Washington. White House officials are touting the fact that despite the chill in relations because of the Ukraine War, the two side still talk when needed, this time about U.S. and Russian embassy personnel. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Sullivan have only reinforced 80-year-old President Joe Biden’s hostile relations with 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Biden said today in Chicago before an economic speech that Putin was losing the Ukraine War and become an economic pariah. Biden’s currently locked in a bitter struggle with the Kremlin over Ukraine, funding a costly proxy against the Russian Federation to defend European democracy.
Since taking office Jan. 20, 2021 Biden called Putin as “soulless killer,” accusing Communist China of committing genocide against Muslim Uyghurs. With hostile statements like those, it’s no wonder the U.S. has the worst relations with Russia and China in decades. U.S. has about 120 security personnel in the Moscow embassy, down from the `1,200 normal levels. Putin suspended a renewed attempt to resuscitate the START treaty, something he cancelled last February because of the Ukraine War. Putin sees no point of resuming agreed-on inspections, now that the U.S. and Russia find themselves at war with each other. Lavrov would like to see U.S.-Russian relations improve but only after Biden ends the Ukraine War. Lavrov said the Russian Federation does not want nuclear war wit the United States but notes Biden does nothing to end the 16-month old conflict.
Lavrov has tried on repeated occasions to talk with Blinken, only to be told there’s no need for more dialogue with Moscow. “No one wants a nuclear war but it was not in vain that . . . .counterbalances were created in the form of those treaties that were talked about—[on] anti-missile defense, intermediate and shorter-range missiles and the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Arms [New Start,”] said Lavrov. Blinken hasn’t talked to Lavrov in months, mirroring Biden’s war-like attitude that wants no talks with Putin until he agrees to leave all of Ukraine. Biden’s proxy war against the Kremlin, continuing to arm Ukraine, has made diplomatic relations with Moscow all the more complicated. While Washington and Moscow still maintain strained diplomatic relations, they’re at the lowest pointl since the end of WW II. Restoring diplomatic relations with Russia should be high on Biden’s priority list.
.
Funding a proxy war against the Russian Federation has all but killed U.S.-Russian relations. Biden’s extreme sanctions against Moscow has led to unintended consequences with Russia and China joining a political, economic, military and strategic alliance, all because Biden joined Ukraine’s war with the Kremlin. Biden can no longer count of linkage or typical lines of communication and cooperation with U.S. adversaries. Joining Ukraine’s battle with Russia, Biden has killed any chance of cooperation with Russia on a host of global issues, including resuming arms control talks that help save the world from nuclear war. Lavrov and Blinken hardly speak because Biden has set a belligerent tone in U.S.-Russian relations. If Biden cared about U.S. foreign policy and world peace, he’d work feverishly on ending the Ukraine War. Armed conflict helps neither combatant but, more importantly, world peace.
Biden finds himself hogtied trying to get Wall Street Journalist Evan Gershkovich out of a Russian jail awaiting espionage charges. While it’s true last December Biden struck a deal with Russia to get 33-year-old WNBA start Brittney Griner out of a Russian penal colony, it’s also true that things are more difficult now. Lavrov achnowledged that U.S. Russian Amb. Lynne Tracy spoke with her Russian counterpart, assuring them that the U.S. had nothing to do with Wagener Group Chief Yevgeny Prigozhen’s failed June 24 coup. Tracy told her contact that Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko would do everything to keep the tactical nuke arsenal safe. Tracy’s contacts say little about the deteriorated state of U.S.-Russian relations, complicated by the Ukraine War. Unless Biden moves to end the war against the Kremlin, U.S.-Russian relations remain virtually nonexistent.
Biden’s decision to continue funding Ukraiine’s war against the Kremlin makes diplomatic relations all but impossible. U.S. and Russia work on arms control or any other issue cannot move forward until Biden ends his proxy war against the Kremlin. Putin stated clearly that work on arms control or any other topic cannot resume until the U.S. ends its proxy war using Ukrainian troops against the Kremlin. Biden’s support of cash-and-arms to Ukraine has all but killed U.S.-Russian relations. Whatever contacts between the U.S. Moscow are purely ceremonial at this point, having no real substance. Whatever happened with Prigozhin’s mutiny, Tracy made clear that the U.S. was not involved in the June 24 failed coup. Relations between Washington and Moscow are so deteriorated that Putin doesn’t know what to expect, with U.S. press reports that Russian Gen. Sergei Surovikin was arrested.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
