Russia tried to find common ground with the administration of the 46th US President Joe Biden, but it was Washington, with its policy, that brought bilateral relations to their current state, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
“Of course, we had no illusions from the very beginning, but we sincerely strove to find common ground even in the face of confrontation constantly fomented by Washington in order to make Russian-American relations stable and predictable,” the diplomat said in a statement published on the Foreign Ministry website.
“It was the desire of the United States to maintain American hegemony at all costs, ignoring the new geopolitical realities, as well as the arrogant unwillingness to conduct a serious dialogue on security guarantees, that led to a natural result,” Zakharova emphasized.
So she commented on the words of US State Department spokesman Ned Price that the Biden administration was trying to build relations with Russia, due to which they allegedly became "more unstable and unpredictable."
The representative of the Foreign Ministry stressed that the dangerous and short-sighted policy of Washington in the situation in Ukraine puts the United States and Russia on the brink of a direct clash.
In this connection, Moscow urges the White House to "soberly assess the situation and not spin the spiral of dangerous escalation," Zakharova added.
“We hope that Washington will hear us, although there are no grounds for optimism yet.
Rhetorical assurances of good intentions, constantly heard from the American side in between threats and "five minutes of hatred", by definition, cannot be the basis for an equal dialogue," the diplomat said.
Maria Zakharova
RIA News
© Press Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Also, according to her, the information voiced by Price that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is in contact with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is not true.
“American officials do not disdain to lie trivially ... For reference: the last time they spoke on the phone was on July 29, and at subsequent international forums the head of American diplomacy ran away from our minister so as not to cross paths with him and not get into the frame,” she stressed. she is.
In conclusion, Zakharova noted that Russia is interested in reducing tensions, but there is currently no readiness on the part of Washington to move forward and negotiate honestly.
Lost Dialogue
Earlier, a State Department official in an interview with Meduza* said that the Biden administration allegedly from the very beginning of its term “declared that it was seeking a more stable and predictable relationship with Russia.”
“Efforts have been made in this direction: President Biden met with Putin in Geneva in 2021 to see if such a relationship is possible.
Unfortunately, a very unambiguous answer followed from Russia: they responded to our proposal by making these relations even more unstable and unpredictable, ”Price said.
Negotiations between Russia and the USA
RIA News
© Pavel Bednyakov
The representative of the State Department noted that after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, Washington “made it clear” that there was no question of maintaining the status quo in relation to the two countries.
At the same time, Price added that the United States continues to "believe in the possibility of maintaining a dialogue with Russia."
As an example, he said that Anthony Blinken "continues to communicate" with Sergei Lavrov, which was denied by Maria Zakharova.
Recall that after the first and only so far face-to-face meeting between the presidents of Russia and the United States, Moscow made a proposal to Washington to legally formalize agreements on security guarantees in Europe.
Vladimir Putin repeatedly spoke with Joe Biden on the phone in December, drawing the attention of the US president to the need for Russia to obtain firm legal guarantees that exclude the advancement of NATO to the east and the deployment of certain weapons systems in close proximity to Russian borders.
In January 2022, representatives of the Russian Federation held several rounds of negotiations with the US and NATO delegations and handed them draft documents that spelled out Russian concerns and proposals.
Subsequently, Washington sent a written response to these proposals to Moscow.
The Russian Foreign Ministry then stated that the United States had not given a constructive response to the basic elements of the draft treaty prepared by the Russian side.
On February 21, Vladimir Putin, in his address to the Russians on the issue of recognizing the independence and sovereignty of the DPR and LPR, stressed that the responses of the United States and NATO to the draft documents submitted to them in December looked “like an attempt to wrap up the issue”, and Russia’s fundamental proposals were ignored.
In turn, at the end of April, Sergei Lavrov, in an interview with the Big Game program on Channel One, said: “The negotiations that then took place between our delegations and the United States, and then I met with Blinken, and then our team went to NATO, where presented the treaty already in the NATO context... they showed that none of them showed any desire to take into account our legitimate security interests.”
"Classic Line"
Experts interviewed by RT note that this assessment by the Foreign Ministry of the reasons for the current state of dialogue between Moscow and Washington corresponds to the actual state of affairs.
Thus, HSE professor Dmitry Evstafiev noted that Washington adheres to its traditional line of shifting responsibility for its own mistakes to others.
“This classic line is that the United States completely denies everything that has been undertaken by Russia over the past five to seven years to establish a new understanding between countries.
Ned Price is guided by the fact that the rules of the game are set only in Washington and only there they change.
Everyone else must agree to Washington's right to establish hegemony.
The United States is absolutely not interested in the opinion of other countries, and whether they agree with their interpretation of events, ”the political scientist emphasized.
Evstafiev added that the United States is counteracting the attempts of various states to form new geopolitical and economic realities.
“However, the United States does not have enough resources, they got involved in too many conflict situations to be effectively managed simultaneously, especially against the backdrop of a clear internal crisis,” the expert explained.
According to him, now Moscow and Washington have no intention of entering into a direct clash with each other.
“We demonstrate our willingness to compromise.
So far, the likelihood of a direct clash between Russia and the United States is purely hypothetical.
However, the possibility of accidents and crisis incidents involving American and Russian forces and military potential should not be discounted, ”the source explained to RT.
According to Americanist political scientist Malek Dudakov, today the main stumbling block on the path to normalizing relations between the United States and Russia is obviously the situation around Ukraine.
The reason for this was largely the unwillingness of Washington to take Russian concerns about security guarantees seriously, the expert stressed.
“Relations between the US and Russia will stabilize at the moment when Washington changes its course in Ukraine and agrees to a settlement of the situation, the version of which would really suit Russia.
Then stabilization will be possible, and after that it will be possible to see what common interests there are for further dialogue.
It continues now in certain areas - under the START III treaty, the exchange of prisoners.
On other issues, we de facto do not have relations, and it all depends on when the American agenda on Ukraine changes,” the political scientist concluded.
* Mass media recognized as a foreign agent by decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation of 04/23/2021.