RUSSIA, U.S. SET TO OPEN GENEVA TALKS

A top Russian diplomat predicted “difficult” talks with the United States this week after attending a working dinner with U.S. officials in Geneva on Sunday as part of the kickoff to a string of meetings in three European cities this week, with ties at a low over Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and other Russian officials met for over two hours with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the head of the U.S. delegation, and her team at the luxury residence of the U.S. ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament that overlooks Lake Geneva.

The dinner was a prelude to a broader discussion between the two teams at the U.S. mission in Geneva starting today — culminating a string of meetings both virtual and in person among U.S. officials, their Western allies, and Russian leaders in recent days and weeks as tensions over Russian pressure against Ukraine have grown.

“We plunged into the substance of the forthcoming issues, but the talks are going to be difficult,” Ryabkov told reporters as he left the dinner meeting. “They cannot be easy. They will be business-like. I think we won’t waste our time tomorrow.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price said that during Sunday’s dinner Sherman “stressed the United States’ commitment to the international principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the freedom of sovereign nations to choose their own alliances,” a reference to Ukraine and its aspirations of joining NATO.

Sherman “affirmed that the United States would welcome genuine progress through diplomacy,” Price said in a statement.

The talks are seen as a first step toward rekindling dialogue as ties have worsened because Russia has deployed an estimated 100,000 troops along its border with Ukraine. Concerns have risen about a broader Russian military incursion in the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government has laid out a list of demands, such as seeking guarantees that the NATO military alliance won’t seek to expand any further eastward to countries like Ukraine or Georgia, which are former Soviet republics.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday he didn’t expect any breakthroughs in talks with the Russians in Geneva or during conversations in Brussels and in Vienna later this week.

The United States and other Western allies have pledged “severe costs” to Russia if it moves against Ukraine.