The meeting between Lavrov and Blinken alarmed Ukraine
The first face-to-face meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and State Department Head Antony Blinken lasted longer than originally planned – 1 hour 40 minutes. The talks took place last night in Reykjavik, a symbolic place because it was here that the meeting between Bush and Gorbachev took place, putting an end to the Cold War. Now observers are looking for signs of the beginning of a new “détente” in US-Russian relations.
Blinken confirmed information that appeared in the media the day before about the suspension of sanctions against Nord Stream 2, clarifying that the United States will continue to oppose the construction of the gas pipeline. At the same time, the Secretary of State called Washington’s aggressive anti-Russian policy a defense of national interests, and not a desire for escalation.
Political scientist Sergei Markov believes that the Americans are simply putting a good face on a bad game, since the sanctions did not work.
“Leaks say that sanctions against Nord Stream 2 do not work; it will be built anyway. Many sanctions have been imposed, but they do not work. Only new, brutal sanctions against German and European corporations in general can help. But they decided not to use them against the Germans, because Biden does not want to quarrel, but to be friends with Europe. All this is seen as a big victory for Putin,” Markov asserts.
By the way, the general public did not notice, but it seems that Russia also made some concessions to the Americans on the eve of the negotiations. Thus, the US Embassy stated that the Russian authorities notified the diplomatic mission “of their intention to postpone the ban on the hiring of foreign workers by the United States diplomatic mission.”
One way or another, at the end of the summit, both sides called the conversation “constructive and useful”; its results will be reported to Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, whose meeting is also being prepared. Observers note that for the first time in a long time, the United States refrained from attacks against Russia regarding cyber attacks and election interference. The overall tone is different from the harsh rhetoric in the case of American negotiations with China.
“The problem with all these negotiations with the United States is that all the agreements reached with representatives of the State Department have their weight and significance exactly until the moment when the US delegation takes the first step onto the plane,” notes military expert Vladimir Orlov.
But in Ukraine the meeting in Reykjavik was met with alarm. Verkhovna Rada deputy Maxim Buzhansky published a photo of the agreement on the division of Europe reached by Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill at the end of World War II.
“I remembered that the reports about the meeting between Blinken and Lavrov remind me. 77 years have passed, nothing has changed,” Buzhansky commented.
Lavrov and Blinken's meeting alarmed Ukraine.