Announced overnight by France, the Putin-Biden summit does not seem to flow naturally.
One step forward, two steps back. While the Elysée was delighted with the holding of a summit between Biden and Putin, the Kremlin is blowing hot and cold. “There is an agreement on the fact of having to continue the dialogue at the level of ministers (of Foreign Affairs). To speak of concrete plans for the organization of summits is premature,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “A meeting is possible if the heads of state (Russian and American) deem it useful”he added, noting that Joe Biden and Putin still have the possibility “when it’s necessary” to talk to each other “on the phone or otherwise”.
Vladimir Putin is due to chair a midday meeting of his Security Council on Monday, a powerful body that brings together the main Russian decision-makers, in particular the leaders of the army and the intelligence services.
The French presidency had announced overnight from Sunday to Monday that Joe Biden and Vladimir Poutine each had “accepted the principle of such a summit”specifying that these talks would then be extended to “all stakeholders” to the Ukrainian crisis provided that Russia does not attack its Ukrainian neighbour. The announcement came after President Emmanuel Macron spoke twice with the Russian president and once with the US leader.
“Today, the conditions for dialogue exist. It is possible to go to a summit, to bring together the stakeholders, to negotiate the agenda for this discussion.added the Elysée on Monday, believing that all the parties were advancing on a “ridge path” and that it was now “for President Putin to make his choice.”
A meeting of the heads of Russian and American diplomats, Sergei Lavrov and Antony Blinken, is scheduled for Thursday. The Kremlin also re-emphasized that the “the situation remains extremely tense” on Ukraine’s eastern front, between Ukrainian forces and Moscow-backed pro-Russian separatists. “This is disturbing”said Dmitry Peskov, whose country holds Ukraine responsible for the worsening of the situation on the ground, accusing it of wanting to commit a “genocide” Russian-speaking populations.
Westerners see the hand of Moscow behind the intensification of fighting for several days on the front line and fear that this will serve as a pretext for Russia, which has massed 150,000 troops on the Ukrainian borders, to launch a massive attack against its pro-Western neighbor. Moscow defends itself from any project of invasion of Ukraine but claims that the country never integrates NATO and also the withdrawal of the Alliance from Eastern Europe, all requests rejected by the West until now. here.