Ties between the United States and Russia have deteriorated since President Biden took office. Diplomats from both countries have not met since the transition of power occurred in the United States. However, this will change later this week in Iceland.
Top diplomats from the United States and Russia are scheduled to meet in Iceland for their first in-person encounter in recent months. This visit comes at a time when tensions are very high between the two nations.
Details of the Meeting
Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will not be present at the meeting between the United States and Russia. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are scheduled to meet on Wednesday. More nations will be present for the Arctic Council Meeting, but the U.S. and Russia will have a separate conference.
The meeting is set for the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik, a city that has been a historic meeting venue for the United States and Russia.
This talk between Blinken and Lavrov is to prepare for a conference next month where President Biden and Putin will come face-to-face for the first time. Putin has mocked Biden for his inability to put sentences together at times, making the world wonder about the trajectory for the discussion.
The diplomats are going to create the framework for Biden and Putin’s discussion. Blinken and Lavrov are proposing the topics that their respective presidents would like to discuss during the meeting.
The Deterioration of United States and Russia Relations
It appears that there could be a second Cold War between the United States and Russia because of the downfall of the relation between the nations. There are various issues that the two sides cannot agree on since President Biden took office.
Russia seemed to fear President Trump, but they have walked all over Biden the past few months. Nuclear weapons and Russia’s activity in Ukraine have been an issue for American leadership.
President Putin’s treatment of Alexei Navalny has disturbed the United States. Navalny, Putin’s main domestic threat, has been mistreated by the Russian government. He is currently serving a jail sentence for disobeying direct orders from the Kremlin.
Additionally, it’s believed that Russian hackers were responsible for the ransomware attack on a U.S. pipeline that left people on the east coast without gas for over a week. This attack has not been directly attributed to the Russians, but the investigation points in this direction.
Comments from Blinken
Blinken spoke to the media on Tuesday and said that he wants to have stronger ties with Russia, but American is not messing around.
He said, “It would be our preference to have a more stable and more predictable relationship with Russia. At the same time, we’ve been very clear that if Russia chooses to take reckless or aggressive actions that target our interests or those of our allies and partners, we’ll respond. Not for purposes of seeking conflict or escalating but because such challenges cannot be allowed to go forward with impunity.”
Russia has not seemed to listen over the past few months; so it’s unclear if Blinken’s warning will change anything moving forward.
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