Russian President Vladimir Putin’s team won’t be trying to set a positive atmosphere in the weeks leading up to his summit with President Joe Biden, according to a senior Russian diplomat.
“The Americans should proceed from the premise that a number of signals from Moscow … are going to be uncomfortable for them, including in the coming days,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters, per state media.
Ryabkov’s statement comes two weeks before President Joe Biden is expected to meet Putin in Switzerland. The two presidents finalized plans to meet last week, following an initial meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that coincided with the Biden administration’s decision to waive congressionally mandated sanctions on a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.
“The leaders will discuss the full range of pressing issues as we seek to restore predictability and stability to the U.S.-Russia relationship,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week.
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Ryabkov said Monday that the two presidents have different priorities for the presidential meeting.
“The agendas of the U.S. and Russia do not coincide, but we are traditionally ready to react to any issues raised by the American side,” he said. “Unfortunately, the reciprocal readiness is observed less and more seldom.”
In parallel, Lavrov and Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu complained about NATO military exercises in Eastern Europe, where the alliance has fortified defenses in response to the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
“U.S. strategic bombers have boosted the intensify of their flights in Europe by 14 times in the past seven years,” Shoigu said. “The number of drills has grown by 50% in recent years. … Their main aim is to practice the redeployment of a full-fledged U.S. division from the United States to Europe.”
Putin deployed unmarked Russian special forces to annex Crimea and begin a conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014 — while denying that he had launched the assault, then admitting it, only to deny he sent Russian forces onto Ukrainian soil thereafter. That assault sent a shiver through European capitals, raising the specter of additional aggression against the NATO allies of the post-Soviet space.
“NATO has enhanced its forward presence in the eastern part of the Alliance, with four multinational battalion-size battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, on a rotational basis,” a recent NATO bulletin explained. “These battlegroups, led by the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and the United States respectively, are robust and combat-ready forces. They demonstrate the strength of the transatlantic bond and make clear that an attack on one Ally would be considered an attack on the whole Alliance.”
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The pre-meeting “signals” may not be a predictor of the meeting itself. “I am not talking here about the meeting at the highest level. I don’t know how it will proceed,” Ryabkov said.
