Sherman to tackle Ukraine tensions
Talks with Russians to start after standoff
WASHINGTON: Talks between US and Russian diplomats begin in Geneva on Monday after a weekslong standoff over Russian troop deployments near its border with Ukraine, with veteran envoys on each side trying to avert a crisis.
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will face Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. The two combined have more than half a century of diplomatic experience.
Russia, which moved nearly 100,000 troops close to its border with Ukraine, says it is not preparing for an invasion but wants to see the West back off from its support for Ukraine’s government and halt the eastward expansion of the Nato military alliance.
Washington has already dismissed some of Moscow’s demands as unviable, making rapid progress desired by Russia in the meetings unlikely.
An added wrinkle is Russia sending troops to quell anti-government protests in neighbouring Kazakhstan this week, raising concern in Washington.
The US approach would be “pragmatic, results-oriented”, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said in a press briefing on Wednesday. “We’re not responding to them point by point.”
In a phone call last week between Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, Mr Biden reiterated that the US and European allies would impose unprecedented sanctions if Russia chose to invade Ukraine. Mr Putin responded that sanctions could lead to a “complete breakdown in ties”.
Mr Ryabkov told Izvestia this week that Russia’s approach was necessarily tough, because its previous attempts at persuasion had been fruitless.
He repeated Moscow’s demands for a halt to Nato enlargement, no deployment of its weapons systems in Ukraine and an end to “provocative” military exercises.
“All these are absolutely necessary integral elements, without which we will be forced to state that the other side is showing a lack of cooperation,” he said.
Other officials will also play lead roles when the talks move to Brussels for a Nato-Russia meeting on Wednesday and a meeting hosted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Thursday.
Ms Sherman and Mr Ryabkov will lead the two delegations in Geneva, where talks over Ukraine are taking place at a meeting initially scheduled as the latest Strategic Stability Dialogue between the two adversaries. The regular talks designed to head off the possibility of nuclear confrontation resumed in July following a meeting between Mr Biden and Mr Putin the previous month.
Thomas Graham, a former senior director for Russia on the White House’s National Security Council, said Ms Sherman and Mr Ryabkov were vastly experienced and would conduct the talks professionally, understanding that the task is to defuse the current crisis.
“There aren’t going to be raised voices or pounding on the table,” said Mr Graham, now a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He said a positive outcome for the United States would be for Russia to agree to a programme of further talks.
Andrey Kortunov, an analyst who heads the Russian International Affairs Council, said the Kremlin might see confidence-building measures and some constraint from the West in supplying modern weaponry to Ukraine as sufficient to reduce tensions.
Ms Sherman, 72, is best known for leading negotiations on the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers, which also involved dealing with Russian diplomats.