Security talks between Washington and Moscow have yielded limited results

 High-stakes talks between the United States and Russia failed to break through on Monday, according to The Hill, saying it was part of the Joe Biden administration's attempts to prevent an invasion of Ukraine.

Washington has rejected Moscow's demands for NATO to halt its enlargement and prevent Ukraine from joining the Alliance.

"We will not allow anyone to close NATO's open door policy," said Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman after an extraordinary session of the Geneva Strategic Stability Dialogue.

 And Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov dismissed concerns from the United States and its allies that the gathering of more than 100,000 troops from Moscow on the border with Ukraine increases the risk of war.

"We have explained to our colleagues that there are no plans or intentions to attack Ukraine," Ryabkov told reporters. "There is no reason to fear an escalation scenario in this regard."

However, both sides called for further discussions on other security considerations, signaling the possibility of co-operation to reduce heightened tensions.

 "Today we had a discussion aimed at better understanding the positions, priorities and concerns of the countries," Sherman said.

The Biden administration hinted at the possibility of a bilateral agreement on missile systems, similar to the now-defunct Medium-Range and Short-Range Missile Treaty (DRM), from which the United States withdrew under the Trump administration, and potentially limiting the size and scope of missiles. military exercises as a means of persuading Russia to reduce the accumulation of troops on the border with Ukraine.

 The White House has threatened harsh economic sanctions if Russia launches a military invasion of Ukraine.

Sherman, who is leading the discussions on the United States, described the talks as "honest and frank" and said both sides had agreed to talk again soon, without making any specific plans.

U.S. officials have lowered expectations for talks in less than a month after two telephone conversations between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 "I do not expect any breakthroughs to be achieved on Wednesday. I do not expect any breakthroughs on Thursday, "State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a briefing Monday afternoon, referring to new talks with Moscow scheduled for later this week. "This is the beginning of a diplomatic process."

Sherman expressed hope that future talks would help ease tensions on the border with Ukraine, but she said U.S. officials had not received an indication during Monday's session that Russia planned to de-escalate by withdrawing troops.

 "It is very difficult for diplomats to do the work we do if we have no hope," she told reporters after talks with Ryabkov that lasted more than seven hours.

Meanwhile, Putin's ultimate motivation is a mystery, according to The Hill.

Experts and officials doubt whether he amassed troops on the border with Ukraine as a step towards invasion or more as a means of extracting concessions from the United States and NATO.

 "So far we have not noticed a change in the position of Russian forces on the border with Ukraine, and it is not clear what would make the Russians do that," said Angela Stent, an expert on US-European relations with Russia. . "The fundamental problem here is that no one is entirely sure why Putin created this crisis."

The United States will join NATO allies on Wednesday in Brussels for a Russia-NATO Council meeting and then in Vienna on Thursday, where Russia and Ukraine will attend a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

 White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that the administration views the meetings as a "set of talks" and that officials will be able to judge where things stand at the end of the week.

Emphasizing the message the administration is trying to impose on the domestic public in the United States, Psaki said there would be no discussions about Allied security without their participation.

"There are no talks about Europe without Europe," she said. "There are no talks about Ukraine without Ukraine."

 William Taylor, vice president of Russia and Europe at the United States Institute of Peace, said public statements by US and Russian officials on Monday showed some optimism that areas of co-operation could be reached, particularly concerns for both sides. deployment of missiles on the continent and risk reduction around military exercises.

 "There is some optimism that if this is really the concern that the Russians have about missiles or a possible invasion of the Ukrainians, this can be resolved. "It sounded like there was an agreement on that," he said. "I hope at the end of the week, after all these other talks, that the Russians, the Americans and the Europeans and the other NATO allies will agree to follow one or both, ideally both treaties."

Taylor, a former senior US diplomat in Ukraine, said that despite negotiations in the context of Russia's massive military uprising against Ukraine, he did not see the meetings themselves as a US "discount".

 "I do not see conversations that lead to an understanding of each party's concerns about the other - I do not see this as a discount. "I think it's valuable, from a diplomatic point of view and from a national security point of view, it's valuable to get information about what the other side thinks," he said.

Stent says the prospect of discussing a new missile deal or a new agreement on conventional forces in Europe makes sense "while the United States firmly rejects things that are unreasonable," such as halting NATO enlargement.

 Still, Republicans took advantage of the meeting atmosphere to attack Biden as weak on the world stage, a key theme in their strategy for the mid-2022 midterm elections, in which they could take control of the House of Representatives and Senate. The United States, severely restricting President Joe Biden's democratic administration.

"President Biden's continuing weakness for our opponents around the world has fueled Putin's latest military aggression and threatened Ukraine's territory," said Republican Elise Stefanick, a third-ranked Republican in the House of Representatives, in a statement Monday.

 Stefanic, along with nine other Republicans in the House of Representatives, on Monday introduced legislation aimed at boosting US support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression, although it also served as an attack on the Biden administration's strategy.

 A provision in the bill called "Guaranteeing Ukrainian Autonomy by Strengthening its Defense Law" aims to lift the lifting of Biden's sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which runs from Russia to Germany, a key area of a conflict between Republicans and the administration, which has the tacit support of Democrats in Congress, who initially also opposed the lifting of sanctions on the pipeline.