President Biden called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss the extension of a key nuclear treaty and raise several concerns, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
Psaki, asked about reports of the conversation during a Tuesday press briefing, confirmed that the call was prescheduled and that a readout of the conversation would be released later in the day. Biden told Putin that the United States is seeking a five-year extension of New START, which is the last remaining treaty with Russia limiting the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads and deployed strategic delivery systems, she said.
“He called President Putin this afternoon with the intention of discussing our willingness to extend New START for five years, and also to reaffirm our strong support for Ukraine’s sovereignty in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression, and also to raise matters of concern,” Psaki told reporters at the White House.
While New START was the main point of the call, Psaki said that Biden and Putin were also set to discuss several points of contention between the two world powers. Biden planned to bring up the massive SolarWinds hack, which breached the U.S. government and thousands of public and private customers late in 2020, in addition to reports that Russia placed bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan, she said.
Biden intended to bring up the Russian arrest of anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny, a 44-year-old Putin critic who is believed to have been poisoned by Russian intelligence operatives using a nerve agent during an attempted assassination over the summer, Psaki added. Navalny spent months recovering in Germany and decided to return back to Russia, where he was immediately detained by authorities.
Subsequent protests over Navalny’s detention rocked the country on Saturday, resulting in thousands of arrests. Biden planned to condemn the detention of the pro-Navalny demonstrators during his Tuesday call, Psaki said. State Department spokesman Ned Price previously condemned the arrests and said they “are troubling indications of further restrictions on civil society and fundamental freedoms.”
Biden also intended to reiterate to Putin that the U.S. “will act firmly in defense of our national interests in response to malign actions by Russia,” Psaki said.
