US, Russia firm up lines ahead of talks today

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken (left) and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

The United States and Russia set out firm lines yesterday ahead of talks on Ukraine, with Washington warning of the risk of confrontation and Moscow ruling out concessions. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Russia to steer away from aggression and choose the diplomatic path as the Kremlin, facing strong pressure to pull back troops from the Ukrainian border, demands wide-ranging new security arrangements with the West. Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian news agencies ahead of his talks in Geneva that Moscow was “disappointed” with signals coming from Washington and from Brussels, where Nato and the European Union are based. He told reporters that preliminary talks with a top US diplomat here late yesterday on the eve of a crucial meeting had been “complex but businesslike”, Russian news agencies reported. Russian and US diplomats are due to meet for talks in the Swiss city today amid fears over a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine. Moscow is hoping to extract security guarantees from the West. “The conversation was complex, it couldn’t be easy. It was businesslike in principle. I don’t think we’ll waste time in vain tomorrow,” Interfax quoted Ryabkov as saying after his first contact with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman before the formal meeting today. He used the word “amazing” to describe their conversation, but it was not clear if the veteran diplomat, whose rhetoric in recent weeks has been consistently hawkish, was speaking ironically. The talks with the US kick off a week of diplomacy during which Russian officials will meet representatives of Nato and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), as Washington tries to assure European allies they will not be sidelined. “There’s a path of dialogue and diplomacy to try to resolve some of these differences and avoid a confrontation,” Blinken told CNN television. “The other path is confrontation and massive consequences for Russia if it renews its aggression on Ukraine. We are about to test the proposition about which path President (Vladimir) Putin is prepared to take.” Since late last year, Putin has amassed tens of thousands of troops at the Ukrainian border and demanded guarantees that Nato will not expand further eastward. The Kremlin is insisting Nato must never grant membership to ex-Soviet Ukraine, which is pushing to join. The United States says many of Moscow’s proposals are non-starters. Blinken warned that any positive outcome from the talks would rely in part on Russia’s willingness to stand down from its aggressive posture, which he likened to “an atmosphere of escalation with a gun to Ukraine’s head” “So if we’re actually going to make progress, we’re going to have to see de-escalation, Russia pulling back from the threat that it currently poses to Ukraine,” US President Joe Biden’s top diplomat said.