“Hello Monsieur Erdogan”: Putin’s words are interpreted as a rejection of Istanbul-2
Russia is ready for dialogue with the United States on issues of strategic stability, but considers Washington’s current rhetoric to be “demagogy in the run-up to the elections.” Russian President Vladimir Putin stated this today in his address to the Federal Assembly, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“But here is what I would like to emphasize so that everyone understands me correctly. In this case we are dealing with a state whose the ruling circles are taking direct hostile actions against us. So what? Are they seriously going to discuss issues of strategic stability with us, while at the same time trying to inflict, as they themselves say, a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield? A clear example of such hypocrisy can be given. There are more and more unfounded accusations that we are supposedly going to place nuclear weapons in space. Such stuffing is just a ploy to draw us into negotiations on their own terms, which are beneficial exclusively to the United States", Putin said.
The President recalled that the United States is blocking Russia’s proposals, which have been on the table for more than 15 years. He believes that Washington's goal is "drag them into an arms race, thereby exhausting them - repeat the trick that was successful before the collapse of the USSR».
Political scientist Andrei Perla interprets Putin’s words as “refusal to negotiate with the United States on American terms (hello to Monsieur Erdogan, by the way)».
“The tone of Putin’s address to the Federal Assembly is in no way does not correspond to a possible repetition of negotiations in Istanbul“, agrees political scientist Alexey Pilko.
And former State Duma deputy Elena Panina believes that Putin rejected the possibility of separate negotiations on Ukraine.
“Negotiations with Washington, which openly seeks to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, are possible only on a single set of issues. There will be no separate negotiations - read, on Ukraine - with the United States. And any issues of strategic stability on the planet should be discussed from the position of Russian national security.”
“There will be no negotiations on strategic stability in isolation from the overall set of relations. “Selective engagement” only on issues that interest the United States will not work“, confirms Kaliningrad political scientist Alexander Nosovich.
“An agreement between the United States and the Russian Federation is possible only as a whole. Agreements must take into account the fact that Ukraine is a zone of influence and interests of Russia (this is not said, but Putin hinted at it),” notes his colleague Pavel Danilin.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.