U.S., Russia begin week of ‘difficult’ talks
Moscow’s military buildup near Ukraine and NATO expansion will be central issues.
GENEVA — A top Russian diplomat predicted “difficult” talks with the United States this week after attending a working dinner with U.S. officials Sunday in Geneva, part of the kickoff to a string of meetings in three European cities. Bilateral ties are at a low over Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and other Russian officials met for more than 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, overlooking Lake Geneva, of the U.S. ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament.
The dinner was a prelude to a broader discussion between the two teams starting Monday in Geneva — 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. “They cannot be easy. They will be businesslike. I think we won’t waste our time tomorrow.”
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 Ukraine or Georgia, which are former Soviet republics.
“The Russian side came here with a clear position that contains a number of elements that, to my mind, are understandable and have been so clearly formulated — including at a high level — that deviating from our approaches simply is not possible,” Ryabkov said.
Asked whether Russia was ready for compromise, he said: “The Americans should get ready to reach a compromise.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Sunday told ABC’s “This Week” he didn’t expect any breakthroughs in the bilateral talks in Geneva or during conversations in Brussels, at a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, and at the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe later this week in Vienna.
The United States and other Western allies have pledged “severe costs” to Russia if it moves against Ukraine.
“The question really now is whether President Putin will take the path of diplomacy and dialogue or seeks confrontation,” Blinken said, suggesting that a Russian move deeper into Ukraine might run counter to Moscow’s interests in the long run.
“If Russia commits renewed aggression against Ukraine, I think it’s a very fair prospect that NATO will reinforce its positions along its eastern flank, the countries that border Russia,” he told ABC.
Russia was coming into the talks seeking a clearer understanding of the U.S. position, and cited signals from Washington that some of the Russian proposals can be discussed, Ryabkov said, according to reporting earlier Sunday from state news agency Tass.
He laid out Russia’s three demands: no further NATO expansion, no missiles on Russia’s borders and for NATO no longer to conduct military exercises or have intelligence operations or infrastructure outside its 1997 borders.
U.S. officials expressed openness Saturday to discussions on curtailing possible future deployments of offensive missiles in Ukraine and putting limits on American and NATO military exercises in Eastern Europe — if Russia is willing to back off Ukraine.
But they warned of hard economic sanctions in case of a Russian intervention, including direct sanctions on Russian entities and restrictions on products exported from the U.S. to Russia and potentially on foreign-made products subject to U.S. jurisdiction.
Ambassador Thomas Greminger — director of the Swiss government-supported Geneva Center for Security Policy, who hosted Ryabkov for a conference in October — said the Geneva talks were “an opportunity to spell out mutual concerns, to spell out mutual expectations. But it would be way too early to expect any clarity, for instance, regarding Ukraine’s bid for NATO membership.
“What we’re seeing is a lot of posturing,” Greminger added. “I think at the end, both Putin and [U.S. President] Biden have absolutely no interest to push toward an escalation.”