The heads of Russian and American diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov and Antony Blinken, met on Friday in Geneva, Switzerland.
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A certain relaxation, after weeks of verbal escalation. Russians and Americans meet “next week”, after talks “francs”, Friday, January 21, on the Russian-Western crisis around Ukraine which still threatens to degenerate.
The meeting in Geneva between the heads of Russian and American diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov and Antony Blinken, follows two telephone conversations between their respective presidents, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, in December. Sergei Lavrov noted that he and his American counterpart were “okay that a reasonable dialogue” was “necessary” so that “the emotion falls”, after a little less than two hours of discussions.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said “convinced” that a Russian military invasion or incursion into Ukraine “won’t happen”. “I firmly hope I am right”, he added, arguing that it was necessary “avoid the worst”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry, however, said that if Westerners continue to ignore it “legitimate concerns” as for the reinforcement of NATO in Ukraine and in Eastern Europe, that would have “the most serious consequences”. For his part, the head of American diplomacy asked Russia to prove that it had no intention of invading Ukraine by withdrawing its troops from the border.