“In an environment of unprecedented escalation of hysteria”: what Putin and Biden discussed during an hour-long telephone conversation

On Saturday, February 12, a telephone conversation took place between Russian President Vladimir Putin and American leader Joe Biden. 

The conversation was a continuation of the Russian-American negotiations held on December 7 via videoconference, as well as a telephone contact on December 30, said Yury Ushakov, aide to the President of Russia.

He also noted that the conversation took place "in an atmosphere of unprecedented escalation by US officials of hysteria about Russia's supposedly imminent invasion of Ukraine."

“It can be stated that the nature of the conversation was still quite balanced and businesslike, and President Biden even referred to the experience of his predecessors, who during the Cold War years did everything possible to avoid a catastrophe, to avoid a serious conflict between our countries,” Ushakov said on briefing for media representatives following the talks.

Biden noted that "our two great powers are still competitors, but they must do everything to maintain stability and security throughout the world."

In response, Putin said that the Russian side would carefully analyze the considerations expressed by Biden and take them into account.

“But, unfortunately, these considerations do not affect the central, key elements of Russian initiatives in fact - neither on the non-expansion of NATO, nor on the non-deployment of strike forces on Ukrainian territory, nor on the return of the configuration of the Alliance forces to the state of 1997, when Russia signed the Founding Act — NATO.

We didn’t receive a substantive response,” Ushakov added.

The President of Russia also "highlighted the destructive line of the Ukrainian authorities to sabotage the Minsk agreements, which has been going on for the past eight years."

“In general, the presidents agreed that the views expressed by Biden would be carefully considered in Moscow and, if possible, taken into account in our reaction to the position documents received from the US and NATO.

... The conversation was of a business nature, I want to emphasize again, ”summed up Ushakov.

As the press secretary of the Russian leader Dmitry Peskov reported earlier, the initiative for the telephone conversation came from Washington, "the request was preceded by a written request from the American side."

In the USA, the conversation of the presidents was assessed as professional and informative.

At the same time, a US administration official at a special briefing noted that during the dialogue "there were no fundamental changes in the dynamics that have taken place in the past few weeks."

The talks between the leaders took place against the background of the escalation of the situation around Ukraine.

Recall that earlier the US State Department called on American diplomats who do not occupy critical positions to leave the territory of Ukraine due to allegedly possible military actions by Russia.

The State Department also urged citizens to refrain from traveling to Ukraine, and Americans already there were advised to leave the country immediately. 

In addition, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Twitter said that the United States had decided to withdraw from Ukraine the American military personnel who were training soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

According to Politico, Joe Biden believes that Russia's "invasion" of Ukraine could take place on February 16.

At the same time, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Russia could launch an invasion at any time, including before the end of the Olympic Games.

Russian officials stressed that Moscow does not have any aggressive plans towards Ukraine, and also indicated that a full-scale information war was unleashed against Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry explained that they consider "even the thought" of a war between Russia and Ukraine unacceptable.

The previous conversation between Putin and Biden took place at the end of December 2021.

Then the main topic of the dialogue was the issue of providing Russia with legal security guarantees and launching negotiations on this topic.

The Russian leader also explained to his colleague the fundamental approaches underlying the draft treaty between Moscow and Washington and the agreement between the Russian Federation and the NATO countries.

Negotiations with Macron

On February 12, Vladimir Putin also had a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron.

According to the Kremlin, the conversation was a continuation of the dialogue that took place earlier during Macron's visit to Moscow. 

The leaders discussed the provision of long-term legal guarantees for the security of the Russian Federation and overcoming the impasse in resolving the intra-Ukrainian conflict.

Putin again drew Macron's attention to the lack of a meaningful US and NATO response to Russian security initiatives.

In addition, the Russian leader drew attention to the reluctance of Western countries to "push the Kiev authorities to implement the Minsk agreements."

“Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron also discussed the situation related to provocative speculations about the allegedly planned Russian “invasion” of Ukraine, accompanied by a large-scale pumping of this country with modern weapons and the preconditions are being created for possible aggressive actions of the Ukrainian security forces in the Donbass,” the statement said. Kremlin.