The Kremlin has described this Wednesday as “sincere” and “pragmatic” the first telephone conversation between the presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, respectively, since the latter acceded on January 20 to the White House.
The spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dimitri Peskov, noted that the conversation “lasted just over 35 minutes” and recalled that Biden and Putin met in 2011 in Moscow when they were vice president of the United States and prime minister of Russia, respectively. “So they agreed to speak quite honestly,” he detailed.
Likewise, he stressed that it was Moscow that proposed to hold the conversation “to congratulate once again” Biden on his access to the White House, although he has clarified that “the conditions do not exist” for the restart of normal relations between both countries.
Peskov pointed out, however, that Putin and Biden emphasized during their conversation on maintaining the dialogue, but did not address the possibility of holding a meeting. “Both a personal meeting and the issue of visits were not discussed,” he stressed, as reported by the Russian news agency Sputnik.
The US Presidency confirmed the conversation on Tuesday and highlighted that both leaders “discussed the will of both countries to extend New START for five years and agreed that their teams would work urgently to complete the extension before February 5.”
“They also agreed to explore strategic stability discussions on a number of arms control and security issues,” the White House said, noting that Biden had also conveyed to Putin the “strong support” of the United States for Ukraine’s sovereignty.
On the other hand, he alluded to other “worrying” issues, including the cyberattack suffered by the SolarWinds company – which provides its services to a large number of strategic entities – the information that suggests that Moscow grants “rewards” to US soldiers. in Afghanistan and foreign interference in the November 3 presidential elections.
The Russian authorities announced early in the day an agreement between the two countries to extend the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) for five years, which expired on February 5, without Washington having ruled on it.
