#Top #Russian #diplomats #hold #open #talks #war
The top diplomats of the United States and Russia spoke on Friday for the first time since the Ukraine war, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken describing an “open” exchange as he urged freeing two Americans.
Blinken opened the conversation with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whom he had already shunned a few weeks ago when urging Russia to accept an offer to release prisoners.
“We had an open and direct conversation. I urged the Kremlin to accept the essential proposal we made to release Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner,” Blinken told reporters.
President Joe Biden is facing mounting public pressure to find a way home for Griner, a basketball star jailed for transporting cannabis oil, and Whelan, a former Marine jailed on espionage charges he denies.
Blinken declined to characterize Lavrov’s reaction, saying “I can’t give you an assessment of whether I think things are more or less likely.”
“But it was important that he heard about it directly from me,” Blinken said.
Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement accompanying the call that relations between the two nations “are in dire need of normalization.”
“As for a possible exchange of Russian and American prisoners, the Russian side insisted that we return to a regime of professional dialogue, free from media speculation, within the framework of discreet diplomacy,” it said.
Lavrov also condemned the US military and NATO for their billions of dollars in arms sales to Ukraine, saying it “only prolonged the agony of the Kiev regime and prolonged the conflict and its casualties.” This was announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
– Annexation Warnings –
The US proposal, quietly sent to Russia a few weeks earlier, reportedly involves swapping the two Americans for convicted Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout and would follow a similar prisoner swap in April.
Blinken said he also urged Lavrov for Russia to recognize a Turkey-brokered proposal to ship grain from Ukraine and alleged Moscow plans to annex more parts of Ukraine captured by Russian troops.
Blinken said he told Lavrov that the world would not recognize an annexation.
“It was very important for the Russians to hear directly from us that this will not be accepted – and not only will it not be accepted, it will impose additional significant costs on Russia if it goes through,” Blinken said.
Blinken said Russia was preparing “sham referendums” to try to “falsely demonstrate that people in these parts of Ukraine are somehow trying to become part of Russia.”
The votes are part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goal to “devour as much Ukrainian territory as possible,” he added.
The phone call was the first between Blinken and Lavrov since February 15, when the top US diplomat warned Russia about an invasion of Ukraine, repeating a message he delivered personally in Geneva a month earlier.
Putin went ahead and attacked nine days later, prompting the United States and its allies to impose sweeping sanctions and attempt to isolate Russia on the world stage.
Blinken refused to meet Lavrov when both attended talks of the Group of 20 major economies in Bali in early July. Their paths are expected to cross again next week at Association of Southeast Asian Nations talks in Cambodia.
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