A telephone conversation took place between the presidents of the United States and Russia on Thursday. This time the initiator was Vladimir Putin - usually before Joe Biden was the first to call, writes the Ukrainian newspaper "Strana" in a material presented without editorial intervention.
The subject of the conversation was Ukraine and Russia's proposals for de-escalation with NATO.
Five conclusions:
1. The purpose of this conversation is to make diplomatic preparations for the forthcoming negotiations in January. They need to focus on topics that have perspectives. And what will be discussed between the Americans and the Russians directly, and what will be discussed through NATO and the OSCE, must be shared.
2. Among the most realistic topics, it is now possible to single out the refusal to deploy firearms in Ukraine, as Biden said, according to the Russian version. Obviously, this issue will be one of the key issues in the January talks.
3. A very important point is the dialogue on sanctions in the event of an attack on Ukraine.
Biden said that in the event of an invasion, they would impose economic restrictions on Russia and begin to increase NATO's grouping near its borders. But Putin's response is typical: the Kremlin has threatened to sever ties with the United States.
4. At the same time, the dialogue has not yet been rejected. The United States has confirmed that there are acceptable points in Russia's proposals that will be discussed in the talks. It can be assumed that if there is indeed progress in this direction, the threat of escalation will decrease sharply.
5. This time the parties did not say anything about the Minsk agreements - although at the previous meeting this topic was one of the main ones. But this hardly means that the issue of settlement in Donbass has been put on hold. Stopping US efforts here would be a clear signal to Moscow that the Americans are not really ready to cheer. And that would make the other negotiations meaningless.
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