Biden called Putin with claims. Ukrainians are upset
New American President Joe Biden called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. This was the first conversation after the election of a new US leader. The main result is the extension of the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty, which expired in early February.
The call on Tuesday evening took place at the initiative of Washington. However, the American press has already explained that the conversation was previously requested by the Russian side, but Biden postponed it because, allegedly, he first wanted to discuss all the details with NATO partners.
However, it is possible that the pause was made in order to wait to see how the Western-backed unrest in Russia would develop. After all, if they were successful, the United States would have additional trump cards.
Interestingly, the Kremlin issues a very restrained press release, saying that Biden and Putin discussed “topical issues on the bilateral and international agenda.”
The Americans report much more interesting details - Biden also expressed complaints about Alexei Navalny, and recalled accusations against Russia regarding interference in the elections. In addition, he promised to continue to support Ukraine in the face of “Russian aggression”, as well as to firmly respond to the “harmful” actions of the Russian Federation.
Deutsche Welle made a typo when it reported that Biden had a telephone conversation with “Russian President Alexei Navalny.”
However, Valery Chaly, who served as Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States during the time of Petro Poroshenko, saw the conversation between Putin and Biden as a bad sign for Kyiv. Chaly said that it would be in Ukraine’s interests for Vladimir Zelensky to get ahead of Putin and be the first to communicate with the new American president.
“It is clear that some, even experienced Ukrainian diplomats and experts, will say that it is not so important who spoke first with the US President. But I do not think so. After the last elections and inauguration, the President of Ukraine congratulated the elected President of the United States in the first days. We did not let the Russians go ahead even on their first official visit - Ukraine was the first. And if someone tells me that it was more difficult to do this now than then, he does not know what enormous efforts were directed against us in those days. Ukraine should be first!” – Chaly comments on his blog.
“Biden has already talked about Ukraine with both Merkel and Putin, he hasn’t talked about it only with the Ukrainian president,” notes the Ukrainian Institute of Politics in a commentary.
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