People take part in a protest in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Photo: Federico Gambarini/dpa/IANS
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan Sullivan’s comments came days after President Joe Biden met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Geneva of Switzerland…reports Asian Lite News
The US is preparing additional sanctions against Russia over the alleged poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said.
“We are preparing another package of sanctions to apply in this case as well,” Sullivan said on Sunday in an interview with CNN when asked if the administration will further pressure Moscow over Navalny, Xinhua reported.
“It will come as soon as we have developed the packages to ensure that we are getting the right targets. And when we do that, we will impose further sanctions with respect to chemical weapons,” he added.
Sullivan’s comments came days after President Joe Biden met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Geneva of Switzerland, the first meeting between the two leaders since Biden took office.
In March, the Biden administration announced multiple sanctions and restrictions against Russian individuals and entities over the alleged poisoning of Navalny.
The US intelligence community assessed that officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service used a nerve agent known as Novichok to poison Navalny on August 20, 2020.
Russia has repeatedly denied such accusations, saying the Navalny case is a purely domestic affair and foreign intervention is not allowed.
The Ministry recalled Russia’s efforts to preserve the arms-control pact and reiterated that the US is responsible for its collapse….reports Asian Lite News
Russia will officially withdraw from the Treaty on Open Skies, an arms control pact with the US that permitted unarmed surveillance flights over military facilities in both countries, on December 18, the Foreign Ministry said.
In a statement on Friday, the Ministry announced that it notified all the related parties of Russia’s pullout and the decision will enter into force in six months.
The Ministry recalled Russia’s efforts to preserve the arms-control pact and reiterated that the US is responsible for its collapse.
On June 7, President Vladimir Putin signed the law to quit the Treaty on Open Skies.
The administration of former US President Donald Trump announced a year ago that Washington would withdraw from Open Skies, alleging Russia had violated its terms.
The incumbent Joe Biden administration decided in May to stick to that decision.
Russia blamed the US for the end of the agreement, which was signed in Helsinki on March 24, 1992.
It has been in force since 2002.
Only one key arms control agreement remains between the US and Russia — the New START nuclear disarmament treaty.
Shortly before it was set to expire in February, Biden and Putin had agreed on an extension.
The New START treaty limits the nuclear arsenals of both countries to 800 delivery systems and 1,550 ready-to-use nuclear warheads.
Josep Borrell, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow (Credit: twitter.com/JosepBorrellF)
EU-Russia relations have reached a new low level after the 27-state bloc sanctioned Moscow over the arrest of Alexei Navalny….reports Asian Lite News
Relations between Russia and the European Union (EU) are at the “lowest possible level and a renewed partnership allowing for closer cooperation is a distant prospect”, said Josep Borrell, the bloc’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
Addressing a news conference on Wednesday, he said that while Russia remains the EU’s largest neighbour and an important global actor, the “deliberate policy choices and aggressive actions of the Russian government over the last years have created a negative spiral” in relations, Xinhua news agency.
A further downturn of the relations, which are already “at the lowest level,” is “the most likely outlook for the time being”, he added.
“Our ambition should be to explore paths that could help change the current dynamics gradually into a more predictable and stable relationship.
Vladimir-Putin-
“The EU will simultaneously push back, constrain and engage with Russia, based on a strong common understanding of Russia’s aims and an approach of principled pragmatism,” he told the news conference as he launched the bloc’s plan of action in this regard.
To further its own interests, the bloc should engage Russia on several key challenges and the Covid-19 pandemic has shown the common interest for constructive engagement in public health, the EU said in a joint communication endorsed on Wednesday.
“This is a framework of action. It depends on the political will to implement it but it would be very good if we could have the unanimous support of the EU council, the European institutions and the member states,” Borrell added.
EU-Russia relations have reached a new low level after the 27-state bloc sanctioned Moscow over the arrest of Alexei Navalny, the jailed Kremlin critic.
Moscow hit back, saying the case with Navalny is a purely domestic affair and foreign intervention is not allowed.
“We will not leave unfriendly moves, including attempts to talk from a position of strength and interference in internal affairs, without a response,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the opening of a conference on Russian-EU relations in Moscow in May.
At that conference, Lavrov criticised the EU for preferring “ungrounded accusations” to “fact-based dialogue”.
Nevertheless, he noted that Russia is interested in conversations with the EU.
“We have repeatedly said that we are open for constructive cooperation with the EU that would be based on the principles of equality and mutual respect,” Lavrov said.
US President Joe Biden meets his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Geneva.(credit: https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse)
While describing the entire meetings as “good and positive”, Biden somehow warned against foreign interference in internal affairs…reports Asian Lite News
Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at the US on arms control, human rights, cyber-attacks, among other issues, after “constructive” talks with his American counterpart Joe Biden.
“As for the general assessment, I believe there was no hostility at all,” Putin said during his solo press briefing, adding that the meeting, the first of its kind since Biden took office in January, was “open” and with “no pressure of the parties on each other.”
Putin said that the two sides “differ in many respects” but “showed willingness to understand each other and seek ways to bring the positions closer,” and the pivotal face-to-face discussions, held at the 18th century Villa La Grange in Geneva, was “quite constructive”, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Although the two sides have agreed to allow their ambassadors to return to Moscow and Washington respectively, and to launch a strategic stability dialogue for future arms control and risk reduction measures, the Russian head of state refuted critics against Russia on such issues as policy predictability, human rights and cyber-security.
“The West believes that the Russian policy is unpredictable. Well, let me reciprocate. The US withdrawal from the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty in 2002 wasn’t predictable,” Putin told journalists.
As for human rights issues, Putin cited the Black Lives Matter movement in America, the US attacks in Afghanistan, and the existence of the Guantanamo Bay prison.
US President Joe Biden meets his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Geneva.(credit: https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse)
“One single strike can kill … (about) 120 people. All right, assuming this was a mistake that happens in a war, but shooting from a drone, (at) an unarmed crowd, clearly the civilian crowd, what is this about? How would you call that? And who’s responsible for this?” said Putin.
“And how would you call this person? Who is the killer now?” he asked.
On cyberattacks, Putin said that it is of vital importance in the world in general, “for the US in particular, and for Russia as well in the same volume.”
Putin noted that his country has not yet received any response from the US to Russia’s dozens of requests regarding cyberattacks so far since last year.
While describing the entire meetings as “good and positive”, Biden somehow warned at his separate press conference that he will “take action” if the US continues to be interfered by other countries during its presidential elections.
“I made it clear that we will not tolerate attempts to violate our democratic sovereignty or destabilize our democratic elections, and we would respond,” Biden said. “The bottom line as I told President Putin was that we need to have some basic rules…that we can all abide by.”
The US President added that he gave his Russian counterpart a list of 16 specific entities, ranging from the energy sector to water systems, which were defined by the US as critical infrastructures and should be off-limits to attack by cyber or any other means.
“The last thing he (Putin) wants now is a Cold War with the US… I don’t think he’s looking for a Cold War with the US,” he said.
However, Putin attributed the worsening of bilateral relations to the American side. “All steps in regard to the deterioration in the Russian-American relations were not initiated by us, and they were taken by the American side,” he said.
“On the whole, we do realise what our American partners speak about, and they know well what we speak about, when it comes to the so-called ‘red lines’,” Putin said. “But I must sincerely say that we are still far from making emphases and starting to make divisions.”
Although the two sides discussed a wide range of issues from climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, arms control, cyberattacks, to regional conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, a joint statement from both sides focused on a bilateral strategic stability dialogue for future arms control and risk reduction measures.
The two nuclear powers have “demonstrated that, even in periods of tension, they are able to make progress on our shared goals of ensuring predictability in the strategic sphere, reducing the risk of armed conflicts and the threat of nuclear war,” said the statement.
As “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” the two sides “will embark together on an integrated bilateral Strategic Stability Dialogue in the near future,” seeking to “lay the groundwork for future arms control and risk reduction measures,” it said.
The leaders are expected to talk for four or five hours at a stately lakeside Geneva villa, reports Asian Lite News
President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin face off on Wednesday in their first meeting since Biden took office with wide disagreements likely and expectations low for any breakthroughs.
Both have said they hope their talks in a stately lakeside Geneva villa can lead to more stable and predictable relations, even though they remain at odds over everything from arms control and cyber-hacking to election interference and Ukraine.
“We’re not expecting a big set of deliverables out of this meeting,” a senior US official told reporters aboard Air Force One as Biden flew to Geneva, saying the two are expected to talk for four or five hours.
Relations have deteriorated for years, notably with Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, its 2015 intervention in Syria and US charges – denied by Moscow – of its meddling in the 2016 election that brought Donald Trump to the White House.
They sank further in March when Biden said he thought Putin was a “killer”, prompting Russia to recall its ambassador to Washington for consultations.
The United States recalled its ambassador in April. Neither has since returned.
Arms control is one domain where progress has historically been possible despite wider agreements.
In February, Russia and the United States extended for five years the New START treaty, which caps their deployed strategic nuclear warheads and limits the land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.
The senior US official said Biden would also define areas of vital national interest where Russian misconduct would bring a response.
Biden signed an executive order in April giving Washington wide latitude to impose sanctions on Moscow.
Vladimir-Putin-
Biden will hold a solo news conference after meeting
Biden does not plan to hold a joint press conference with Putin following the summit, choosing instead to speak to reporters solo.
Officials say Russia pushed for a joint press conference during negotiations about the summit. But the US resisted because they did not want to give Putin a platform like he had after a summit with former President Donald Trump in Helsinki.
Officials also said they were mindful of Putin’s desire to appear like he’d gotten the better of a US president, and wanted to avoid a situation that devolved into a tit-for-tat playing out in public.
“This is not a contest about who can do better in front of a press conference or try to embarrass each other,” Biden said on Sunday, explaining the decision.
What to expect
The Nation Security Council’s Senior Director for Russia, Eric Green, laid out the planned agenda for the Biden-Putin summit earlier this month, emphasizing that the main goal for the meeting is to establish “very clear lines of communication” with Russia “starting at the presidential level.”
Green said the agenda “will cover the waterfront,” to include future arms control arrangements, the recent ransomware attacks that the US believes have been carried out by criminal groups in Russia, climate change, and the Kremlin-imposed restrictions on the US diplomatic presence in Russia.
Biden and his aides will also “be advocating on behalf of” the American citizens currently detained by Russia, Green said, and will reaffirm the US commitment to Ukrainian sovereignty. The White House also wants to discuss areas of mutual interest in Iran, North Korea, Syria, Afghanistan and the Arctic, Green said.
“We are not interested in a reset nor do we want escalation with Russia,” Green said, adding that “this is a much different Russia” than it was back in the era of the Barack Obama-led reset in 2009.
Biden on Monday said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) treaty is rock solid and unshakable….reports Asian Lite News
US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, will meet on Wednesday in Geneva.
Ahead of the meeting, President Biden said he would lay down “red lines” to President Putin at the, after rallying NATO allies to face up to challenges from Moscow and Beijing, media reported.
In a show of unity ahead of the meeting, President Biden on Monday said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) treaty is rock solid and unshakable.
He then called Putin a bright, tough and worthy adversary.
“The NATO treaty is rock solid and unshakable. It’s a sacred commitment,” Biden told reporters after meeting with allies at the headquarters of the 30-member military alliance that has long been focused on the threat posed by Russia.
“Putin is bright, he is tough and I have found that he is… a worthy adversary,” he said while hailing Putin.
Biden insisted: “I’m not looking for conflict with Russia, but that we will respond if Russia continues its harmful activities.”
Meanwhile, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that the US side is likely to raise the situation around Russia’s jailed opposition activist Alexey Navalny at the upcoming top-level summit in Geneva, and Belarus may also be on the agenda,.
“As I have told you, the presidents may raise any topic. You and I understand that the US side is likely to raise the issue [of Navalny]. We see many signals related to this topic, including from the United Kingdom and Brussels. Of course, they will raise this,” Ushakov told reporters, asked if the situation around Navalny will be on the agenda.
“The presidents may raise any issue, including Belarus. I do not rule out that the Americans can raise the issue, especially given that they discussed this with allies,” Ushakov continued.
The agenda of the upcoming negotiations between Putin and Biden, has been agreed on, while diplomats continue discussing the final documents, with some clarity expected by Tuesday evening, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said.
“Practically all the organizational parameters of the meeting have been agreed upon. The most important thing is that we have agreed on the agenda and even on the order of priority of the issues that the leaders will discuss,” Ushakov told reporters, emphasizing that no agreement on a joint press conference was reached.
“Only one issue remains uncoordinated: this is related to final documents or one final document of the summit. Our colleagues from the foreign ministry are discussing this with partners from the Department of State, there is still some time left,” the Kremlin aide noted, announcing that some clarity on the final documents could be expected by the evening of June 15. (with inputs from ANI/Sputnik)
The US President is all set to meet Putin on June 16 in Geneva….reports Asian Lite News
Three days before the US-Russia Summit, President Joe Biden said that “autocrat” Vladimir Putin was right to say that relations were at their lowest point in years, media reported.
He also suggested that Russia might be weaker than it seemed and that Moscow had overreached in the Middle East, it was reported.
During the G7 summit in UK, Biden said that the world’s richest democracies now faced an existential contest with “autocrats” that would define the 21st Century, according to reports.
Biden was quoted as saying: “Autocrats have enormous power and they don’t have to answer to a public and the fact is that it may very well be if I respond in kind, as I will, that it doesn’t dissuade him – he wants to keep going.”
The US President is all set to meet Putin on June 16 in Geneva.
According to reports, the meeting is expected to be a combative encounter after disputes over spying, hacking, election meddling, Ukraine, Belarus and human rights.
On Sunday, Putin said that the two countries need to engage in a constructive dialogue and establish mechanisms for interaction as there are areas in which Moscow and Washington can cooperate.
“[We need] to restore our personal contacts, relations, establish a direct dialogue, create really functioning mechanisms of interaction,” Putin said in an interview broadcast by the Smotrim.ru media outlet.
The president noted that the US side is well aware that there are a number of areas that are of mutual interest, such as strategic stability, regional conflicts, environmental protection measures, and climate.
“There are areas in which we can really work effectively,” Putin added
Though he described relations with the United States as having “deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years,” Putin said he expects he can work with Biden….reports Asian Lite News
Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced hope Friday that US President Joe Biden will be less impulsive than his predecessor Donald Trump, ahead of his first summit with the new US leader.
In an interview with NBC News, Putin described Biden as a “career man” who has spent his life in politics.
Though he described relations with the United States as having “deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years,” Putin said he expects he can work with Biden.
“It is my great hope that, yes, there are some advantages, some disadvantages, but there will not be any impulse-based movements on behalf of the sitting US president,” he said, according to a translation by NBC News.
“I believe that former US president Trump is an extraordinary individual, talented individual… He is a colorful individual. You may like him or not. But he didn’t come from the US establishment,” Putin was quoted as saying.
Biden plans to raise a range of US complaints, including over purported Russian election interference and hacking, in the summit with Putin on Wednesday in Geneva at the end of the new president’s first foreign trip.
Putin has openly admitted that in the 2016 vote he supported Trump, who had voiced admiration for the Russian leader. At their first summit, Trump infamously appeared to accept Putin’s denials of election interference.
Biden has said he is under no illusions about Putin and has described him as “a killer” in light of a series of high-profile deaths including of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov.
Asked directly if he is “a killer,” Putin chuckled but did not give a yes or no answer.
“Over my tenure, I’ve gotten used to attacks from all kinds of angles and from all kinds of areas under all kinds of pretext and reasons and of different caliber and fierceness, and none of it surprises me,” he said, adding that the term “killer” was a “macho” term common in Hollywood.
Such discourse “is part of US political culture where it’s considered normal. By the way, not here, it is not considered normal here,” he said.
Putin also dismissed as “fake news” a report in the Washington Post that Russia is planning to supply Iran with an advanced satellite system that would allow it to track potential military targets.
“At the very least, I don’t know anything about this kind of thing,” the Russian leader said, speaking from the Kremlin. “It’s just nonsense garbage.”
According to interviewer Keir Simmons, Putin also denied any knowledge of cyberattacks on the United States, and called on Biden to strike a deal with Russia on cyberspace.
Stoltenberg said NATO was seriously concerned about the closer cooperation between Moscow and Minsk in recent months…reports Asian Lite News
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday warned Russia and Belarus against threatening the alliance’s allies, following the forced landing of a passenger plane within the European Union (EU0 by Belarusian authorities.
“We are of course ready, in an emergency, to protect and defend any ally against any kind of threat coming from Minsk and Moscow,” dpa news agency quoted Stoltenberg as saying to the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
“We are vigilant and we are following what is happening in Belarus very closely,” he said.
Belarus is becoming “more and more dependent” on Russia, he added.
Stoltenberg said NATO was seriously concerned about the closer cooperation between Moscow and Minsk in recent months.
“We have had to learn in the past that Russia has massively violated the territorial integrity of states such as Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova.”
He did not want to speculate too much, Stoltenberg said, noting, “NATO is a defensive alliance.”
Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, all members of NATO, share borders with Belarus.
On May 23, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko forced a Ryanair commercial flight between two EU capitals, Athens and Vilnius, to make an emergency landing in Minsk.
Dissident journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, passengers on the plane, were arrested and are being held in custody.
While the EU responded with sanctions on Belarus, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Lukashenko for talks and said Moscow would support Belarus with $500 million in credit.
Putin also underlined his continuing support for Lukashenko in his confrontation with the West.
The law went into effect upon publication by the Kremlin on Monday…reports Asian Lite News
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law withdrawing Moscow from the Open Skies treaty, an arms control pact with the US that permitted unarmed surveillance flights over military facilities in both countries.
The law went into effect upon publication by the Kremlin on Monday, reports dpa news agency.
Putin himself had ordered the withdrawal from Open Skies.
The military observation flights were seen as key to building confidence between Russia and the West after the Cold War.
The decision to abandon the pact was mutual.
The administration of former US president Donald Trump announced a year ago that Washingtonwould withdraw from Open Skies, alleging Russia had violated its terms.
The incumbent Joe Biden administration decided in May to stick to that decision.
Russia blamed the US for the end of the agreement.
Last week, Russia’s upper house of parliament voted to scrap the treaty.
Putin’s signature was the last legal act to withdraw from the deal, signed in Helsinki on March 24, 1992.
It has been in force since 2002.
The topic is now expected to be off the table at Putin’s summit with Biden on June 16 in Geneva.
Only one key arms control agreement remains between the US and Russia — the New START nuclear disarmament treaty.
Shortly before it was set to expire in February, Biden and Putin had agreed on an extension.
The New START treaty limits the nuclear arsenals of both countries to 800 delivery systems and 1,550 ready-to-use nuclear warheads.
