Russia responds to the United States and imposes sanctions on it, but says it is open to a meeting with the White House | Scientist

This exchange of punitive measures comes at a time when relations between the two rival powers continue to deteriorate, in the face of Washington’s accusations. Russian interference in the US presidential elections And prof The situation is increasingly tense in eastern Ukraine.

On Thursday, Washington announced a new series of sanctions against Russia, including 10 Russian diplomats fired and US banks banned from buying Russian government bonds starting June 14.

Moscow’s response was swift and on Friday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the expulsion of 10 US diplomats.

The head of the US Federal Prison Agency and two former senior government officials will also be banned from entering Russia. Donald Trump, A former national security advisor and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

In addition, Lavrov said he “recommends” the US ambassador to Moscow, John Sullivan, to return to Washington for “serious and in-depth consultations”.

“We have not received any official diplomatic correspondence detailing the Russian government’s decisions against American diplomats in Russia,” Sullivan said in a statement issued on Friday.

The Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, had already been summoned for consultations in mid-March after US President Joe Biden described Putin as a “murderer.”

On Friday, Moscow announced the expulsion of five Polish diplomats and indicated that it maintains “some painful measures” for US companies.

The Kremlin summons the White House

Although the Kremlin considered the US sanctions “unacceptable”, it considered Biden’s call for a “de-escalation” “positive.”

President Putin spoke [em primeiro lugar] The need to normalize relations and de-escalation […]Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian presidency, said that the two countries differ in several aspects, so it is positive that the views of the two presidents coincide.

Since coming to power, Biden has vowed to be tougher with Moscow than his predecessor, Donald Trump, who is accused of complacency with Putin.

On the other hand, the White House tenant suggested to his Russian counterpart to hold a summit “in a third country” and “in the coming months.”

“The time has come to stop the escalation,” Biden said on Thursday.

The idea of ​​the meeting was well received in Moscow, despite Peskov claiming that Putin was the first to propose in-depth dialogue, citing a March call for a direct, public dialogue on the Internet after Biden called the Russian president a “killer.” The White House ignored the offer.

The Finnish presidency announced on Friday that Finland has offered to host a possible summit between Biden and Putin. The Scandinavian country already organized a summit between Trump and Putin in 2018.

Relations between Russia and the United States

Relations between Russia and the United States have deteriorated greatly since 2014, when Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.

The Washington sanctions announced Friday are retaliation for the massive 2020 cyber attack, officially attributed to Russia, which used SolarWinds, a US publisher of computer programs that affected several US federal agencies, as a carrier.

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Agency, who was directly accused by Washington, said that these accusations were “fake.”

These disputes between Russia and the United States also occur amid increasing Russia-Ukraine tensions.

Ukraine accuses Russia of seeking a reason to invade the country, and Russia accuses Ukraine of preparing an attack against the pro-Russian separatists from Donbas (eastern Ukraine).

On Friday, the leaders of Ukraine, Germany and France asked Moscow to withdraw its forces from the Russian-Ukrainian border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested holding a summit with Russia, France and Germany, at the end of a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.