Biden spoke with Putin again: what the presidents discussed on New Year's Eve

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone for about an hour on December 30. Biden again threatened Putin with harsh sanctions and increased aid to Ukraine if Russia escalates its aggression. Writes about it with the BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

In January, the US and Europe will begin discussing with Russia its demands to stop NATO expansion.

White House spokesman Jen Psaki announced after the conversation that Joe Biden had again called on Russia to de-escalate the conflict with Ukraine.

“Biden has made clear that the United States and its allies and partners will respond forcefully if Russia invades Ukraine again,” Psaki said.

According to her, Biden advocated a resolution of the conflict through negotiations, which will begin in January along three lines: bilateral negotiations between the United States and Russia in Geneva, the NATO-Russia Council and negotiations within the OSCE, but stressed that progress in these negotiations can only be achieved in case of de-escalation of the situation around Ukraine.

A White House spokesman, who wished to remain anonymous, added to Psaki's words that Biden also talked about strengthening NATO's eastern flank and helping Ukraine.

“President Biden outlined two paths, two options for the American approach, which will depend on Russia’s actions. One is the path of diplomacy. The second is containment of Russia, including a serious economic cost and an adjustment in the position of NATO forces, as well as additional assistance to Ukraine,” he said.

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A White House spokesman said, among other things, that before this conversation, President Biden had conferred with leaders of different European countries, and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had called the Ukrainian government.

What they say in Russia

Yuri Ushakov, the Russian presidential aide for foreign policy, told reporters that President Biden once again threatened Putin with massive sanctions if he invaded Ukraine.

“He mentioned the so-called large-scale sanctions that many people are talking about. This topic was discussed in a previous conversation on December 7th. To this, our president gave a clear answer that this would be a major mistake, which, naturally, could lead to a complete breakdown of relations,” RIA Novosti quotes Ushakov.

In addition, according to Ushakov, Biden "clearly stated that the United States does not intend to deploy offensive strike weapons in Ukraine." Nothing about such plans of the United States was officially known even before the talks between the presidents.

According to Ushakov, Putin told Biden that the negotiations "should not degenerate into chatter," and that Russia expects concrete results from them, and quickly.

“We’ll see how the negotiations go - a day or two, three rounds. Then we will draw conclusions,” noted Putin’s aide.

What the Kremlin wants

This was the second conversation between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden since the beginning of December.... The Russian side made a proposal to talk.

According to experts, the fact that this is the second conversation between the two leaders over the past month is a clear indication of the seriousness of events concerning Ukraine.

At the beginning of the month, the presidents had already talked for two hours via videoconference. Biden then warned Putin that the West would take "strict economic and other measures" if Russia invaded Ukraine. Putin responded by demanding guarantees that NATO would not expand further east.

On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry posted on its website in the public domain a draft of agreements with the United States and NATO countries, in which Moscow directly proposes to legally formalize NATO's refusal to further expand eastward and join the Alliance of Ukraine, as well as other countries that were previously part of the USSR.

Russia, as follows from the project, expects NATO to abandon any military activity on the territory of the states of Eastern Europe, Transcaucasia and Central Asia, as well as from military cooperation with them, refuse to deploy short and medium-range missiles near Russia and from conducting in other parts peace of such military activity that Russia would consider a threat to its national security.

Statements about the need to provide Moscow with new security guarantees are being made at a time when the concentration of Russian troops continues on the borders of Ukraine. To this, the Kremlin has repeatedly stated that the movement of the Russian military on their own territory should not bother anyone.

Will there be "Yalta 2.0"

Ukraine, like Georgia, considers such demands unacceptable.

The West called these Russian initiatives an ultimatum, and some experts compared the forthcoming discussion with the Yalta conference of 1945, at which the victorious countries in World War II agreed on the post-war reconstruction of the world.

“As it becomes clear from the draft treaty between the United States and Russia, Putin wants to reproduce the Yalta agreement of 1945 (in Russia they even talk about “Yalta 2.0”),” wrote one of the most famous American experts on Russia, a former ambassador to Moscow, and now a professor Stanford University Michael McFaul. — In this new version of the agreement, the United States and Russia (this time without Britain) would divide Europe into spheres of influence. This is completely unacceptable."

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Nevertheless, the White House believes that such a discussion is necessary, even if a compromise cannot be reached on all points of the Kremlin's proposed treaty.

“This dialogue should and we expect will occur on a basis of reciprocity,” a Biden administration official said. “There are points on which we can achieve meaningful progress, and there are points on which we disagree. That is the nature of diplomacy."

The United States assures that it is not going to decide the fate of Ukraine and other Eastern European countries behind their backs.

However, according to some media outlets, Eastern European politicians sense the weakness of the United States, and they are particularly worried about Joe Biden's statements that the US is ready to address "Russian concerns about NATO", as well as the aggressive demand for "immediate" concessions made by Putin.

Russian-American talks will take place in Geneva in January. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that this will happen immediately after the New Year holidays, the date has not yet been officially announced.

According to media reports, future negotiations are a meeting in the format of a strategic dialogue at the level of representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on January 10, a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on January 12, and a multilateral meeting at the OSCE site a day later.

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