What the presidents of Russia and the United States were talking about

 

 The presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, spoke for 50 minutes on the phone on Friday night. In the conversation, organized at Putin's request, the leaders discussed the agenda of both the bilateral talks between the Russian Federation and the United States, scheduled for January 10-13, and Moscow's contacts with NATO and the OSCE, the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported.

 Reuters, citing a senior US administration official, said Putin and Biden "saw areas for progress in the upcoming diplomatic talks, as well as areas where an agreement may be impossible." In particular, Washington has not changed its view that decisions to join NATO must be made by "sovereign countries themselves, in consultation with the Alliance, and not by anyone else."

 According to the interlocutor of the agency, the tone of the conversation between the two leaders was serious, and the conversation itself was meaningful. "The United States will continue to monitor very closely the build-up of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine and the movement of those troops," the source added.

 

A statement from the Kremlin following the presidents' conversation said that "Russia has given a comprehensive answer to the option, mentioned again by Joe Biden, of adopting" large-scale "sanctions against Russia in the event of an escalation of the situation around Ukraine." "In particular, it is said that this would be a serious mistake, in fact threatening a complete severance of Russian-American relations," the document said.

 At the same time, the Russian statement notes that during the conversation, Biden stressed that "Washington has no intention of deploying offensive weapons on the territory of Ukraine." Although the White House statement after the talks did not mention such a promise. 

  A spokesman for US President Jen Psaki said Biden had called on Russia to de-escalate tensions with Ukraine. "He explained that the United States, its allies and partners will give a decisive response if Russia invades Ukraine again," Psaki said. According to her, Biden expressed to Putin a condition for progress in the January talks: "President Biden confirmed that significant progress in these dialogues can only happen in conditions of de-escalation, not escalation."

Speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, a White House spokesman added to Psaki's statement that Biden also spoke of strengthening NATO's eastern flank and helping Ukraine. Biden has outlined two paths, including diplomacy, he said. "The other path is one that is more to contain, including serious costs and consequences if Russia decides to continue its invasion of Ukraine. These opportunities include measures that will effectively detach Russia from the global economic and financial system.

 In turn, the aide to Russian President Yuri Ushakov said during a briefing that the presidents' conversation turned out to be serious. According to him, Putin told Biden that negotiations on Russian security guarantees "should not degenerate into chatter" and that Moscow expects concrete results from them, and quickly. "Let's see how the negotiations will go - a day or two, three rounds. Then we will draw conclusions, "Ushakov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

 He did not reveal Moscow's specific plans for Ukraine, but spoke of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the United States threatened military action in response to the deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba. "Our president has stressed that in this situation - quite complicated - we will behave the way the United States would behave if the offensive weapons were located near the US border," he said.