Biden threatens to impose ‘strong sanctions’ on Putin if Russia increases pressure on Ukraine | International

The most difficult video call in almost 11 months Joe Biden The White House ended with a warning to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin: You United States Must prepare for “strong sanctions” with their European allies Russia Increasing pressure on Ukraine. The meeting began Tuesday at 10 a.m. Washington time (12 noon GMT), with Putin at the other end of the line, in a good atmosphere, at the end of a long wooden table at his home in the resort city of Sochi. Black Sea Beach. In the background, tensions, in an increasingly harsh tone, between Moscow and Washington Due to the crisis on the border with Ukraine. Washington has received information from its intelligence services that Putin is preparing for a military operation with 175,000 troops in early 2022, which the Russian leader denies. Russia, for its part, demands that Ukraine not join NATO and launch an offensive to regain territory lost in its conflict in the Donbass region in 2014. Russian-backed separatists. The meeting lasted more than two hours.

According to a White House spokesman, US President Putin expressed deep concern over Putin’s response to the crisis and called for an “immediate reduction” of the conflict and a “return to diplomacy.” Reiterated his support Ukraine’s “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity”. Biden, who has ruled out the possibility of sending U.S. troops to the border, warned on Monday that a top government official was already anticipating tough sanctions. These restrictions will prevent major Russian banks from converting rubles into dollars and other currencies. Bloomberg said the list of initiatives aimed at the fundamentals of the Russian direct investment fund was on the table and that there were restrictions on investors’ ability to buy Russian bonds in the secondary market. According to an anonymous senior official, NATO is also considering strengthening its eastern part if such an attack takes place on Ukrainian soil. Recorded the relationship levels between the two powers Regular Cold War tension.

From the White House, the US president expressed his desire for the next meeting to be “face-to-face” and coordinated the content of the warnings in a series of telephone calls with his “key European allies”. Monday afternoon, to the leaders of Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom (Mario Tracy, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel and Boris Johnson). After the conversation with Putin, Biden plans to repeat these contacts.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zhelensky spoke on Monday afternoon after reaching an agreement on the status of the video call on Tuesday. Zhelensky said on Twitter that the two countries would continue to work “together and in solidarity”.

Ukraine’s entry into NATO was a long – held aspiration of the country prior to the 2008 Bucharest declaration, although Russia regards the country as part of its influence. For that reason, Putin demanded a “firm guarantee” from Washington last week NATO will no longer extend eastward. Atlantic Coalition Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday warned that his organization was “vigilant” in the face of a Russian military build-up on the Ukrainian border and that any aggression would have “consequences.”

However, Ukraine’s integration with NATO is far from over. Alina Frolova, Ukraine’s former deputy foreign minister and director of Stratcom’s strategic liaison center in Ukraine, told EL PAS over the phone that “there is no expectation of this in Kiev, no progress in the long run. Stoltenberg’s support.” However, Frolova did not believe that Western nations had abandoned this purpose. “The United States has sent arms and shown its commitment, and so has the United Kingdom. This is not a matter of numbers, but a political demonstration,” he said. “

A few hours before the meeting between Biden and Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that Putin would maintain his position with Biden in the Ukrainian war. “Undoubtedly, we emphasize the need to force the Kiev regime to fulfill its obligations, which are clearly written in the Minsk Act,” Lavrov said. “Kiev will not listen to anyone but the United States,” he said, insisting that the solution to the Donbass was only a direct dialogue between the Ukrainian government and representatives of the so-called “People’s Republics” of Lukansk and Donetsk. One thing that Kiev has always rejected is the fact that it considers them puppets to be the Kremlin’s direct spokesperson.

The Minsk II Agreements were signed on February 11, 2015 in Moscow, Kiev and in Europe by the Organization for Cooperation and Security (OSCE) mediated by Germany and France. Unlike Minsk I, the agreement was signed between a major separatist offensive backed by Russian artillery and armored forces, which regained control of the Donetsk airport and surrounded the Ukrainian army in Dabaltsevo. The Ukrainian government, led by Pedro Poroshenko, has adopted constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the region and recognizes local elections if overseen by international observers. Restore control of the Donbass border with Russia. But nothing has been accomplished in these six years.

Regarding the possibility of deploying Russian troops in the Donbass, Frolova insists that Moscow has not yet recognized the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lukansk. Half a million Russian passports for its citizens, And all his actions are of a secret nature, such as “sending arms to the Donbass, the recent crisis of immigrants in Belarus and the provocations in the Crimea.” “It simply came to our notice then [de 2014] It started without giving credibility to the threats. Now in Crimea, troops are being mobilized on the borders, Reports of [presidente bielorrusso Aleksandr] Lukashenko… On the ground, the situation looks very serious, ”he added.

In the secluded part of the Donbass, there is a lot of tension. One of its most famous commanders, Alexander Jodakovsky, told the Telegram Channel, “We have moved away from the local issue of NATO expansion and Biden’s unrecognized red lines.

There are differing views on Putin’s move in Russia. Michael Kasyanov, the prime minister during his first term and current leader of the Liberal Barnes Party, was quoted on Twitter as saying that the so-called “nuclear package” of sanctions produced by Washington in the event of a conflict. “It will definitely stop him. There will be no war, or Russia will go back 30 years,” the politician said of the measures that have put the Russian economy at a standstill. Is because its causes are distribution problems that affect the entire planet.

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