For the second time in December, and with soaring tensions in Ukraine, the presidents of the United States and Russia, Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, has maintained this Thursday a telephone conversation. The call, which was requested by the Russian leader, has lasted 50 minutes.
President Biden speaks on the phone with President Putin earlier today. pic.twitter.com/8CjCdIPl5k
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 30, 2021
In a statement after the dialogue between the two leaders, the White House press spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, assured that “Biden has urged Russia to de-escalate tensions with Ukraine & rdquor; and “has made it clear that The US and its partners and allies will respond forcefully if Russia invades more Ukraine & rdquor ;. Likewise, according to Psaki, the US president has reiterated that the “substantive advance & rdquor; In the bilateral dialogue as well as in Russia’s with NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, three meetings to be held in January, “can only take place in an environment of de-escalation and not of escalation & rdquor ;.
Troops and demands
The growing crisis has been triggered by the deployment and concentration of Russian troops and arsenals in the border area with its western neighbor and the fear of an occupation, and it has been made worse by the demands that Putin has made before those meetings that will be opened with the Strategic Security Dialogue on January 10, possibly in Geneva, a bilateral one in which in principle the two leaders will not personally participate and where the delegations will be headed by the undersecretaries of the State Department and the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The core element of Kremlin demands is a proposal to seal a treaty guaranteeing that Ukraine and also Georgia will never join NATO and that the Alliance will not deploy weapons in former soviet republics but they go further and even contemplate a kind of Kremlin veto right to possible military deployments in countries that for more than two decades have been full member states of the Atlantic Alliance. Nine days ago Putin threatened a response “military and technical & rdquor; if those demands are not met.
In recent days, Washington has made an effort to make it clear that it is negotiating with allies to offer the “forceful answer & rdquor; to which Biden alluded in his dialogue with Putin. This would include imposing Economic sanctions, considerably tougher than those implemented after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, if Moscow attacks Ukraine, but also give reinforcement to NATO and more assistance to Ukraine to defend itself.
Pressure tactic
Given the current situation, there is no shortage of voices that interpret Putin’s request to hold the conversation with Biden as a tactic to raise the pressure, seeking to provoke a response to his demands and a pretext for military action.
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Before the call, Putin had sent a holiday congratulatory message to Biden in which he was committed to working together. “We can move forward and establish an effective dialogue between Russia and the United States based on the rmutual respect and in consideration of national interests of each & rdquor ;, he has said in that message, in which he has also made it clear that he hopes his demands are met.
On the eve of the so-called US Administration sources assured that the deployment of Russian troops and capabilities on the border with Ukraine, a country that is also suffering low intensity cyberattacks but continued apparently destined to penetrate its infrastructures, “it continues to be a continued source of great concern& rdquor ;. An analysis of US intelligence published this month by ‘The Washington Post’ estimates that Russia is prepared to move up to 175.00 soldiers. Although Putin is believed to have not yet made the decision, it is predicted that a potential Offensive could happen in late January or February.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com