Biden, in conversation with Putin, called for de-escalation and threatened with a decisive response to Russia’s “invasion” of Ukraine

US President Joe Biden, during a telephone conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin yesterday, announced the readiness of Washington and its allies for a decisive response if Russia “invades Ukraine.”

“President Biden has called on Russia to de-escalate tensions with Ukraine. He made it clear that the United States and its allies and partners will give a decisive answer if Russia invades Ukraine in the future, “- TASS quoted a written statement by White House spokesman Jen Psaki.

For his part, Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov pointed out to reporters that Biden in a telephone conversation several times emphasized the inadmissibility of starting a nuclear war. “The main point that sounded from the American side during this conversation was that President Biden clearly stated that the United States did not intend to deploy offensive strike weapons in Ukraine,” Ushakov stressed.

At the same time, he said, Putin hinted to Biden about the possibility of a complete rupture of relations between the two countries in the event of the introduction of the promised “unprecedented sanctions” against Russia.

In general, the aide to the President of the Russian Federation summed up, the leaders of the two countries talked about security guarantees, and the issues of the bilateral agenda were not touched upon. “The conversation was frank and businesslike and, of course, was useful to both parties. It was agreed to continue regular contacts at the highest level, “the Kremlin said in a statement.

We add that the current telephone conversation between the presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States lasted 50 minutes, and the initiative for such a conversation came from Putin. As the press secretary of the Russian leader Dmitry Peskov said earlier, the purpose of the communication is to continue the discussion of the issues that were on the agenda of the previous conversation between the leaders, as well as the upcoming talks in January 2022.

On January 10, negotiations between the Russian Federation and the United States on security guarantees are planned in Geneva.

Let us also recall that in November-December of the outgoing year, the world media covered the topic of the alleged Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions that should follow. According to the authors and experts of these publications, a sign of an “invasion” is the concentration of Russian military equipment in the regions bordering on Ukraine. Possible sanctions include both the shutdown of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, and restrictions against Russian energy companies, and the shutdown of the SWIFT system of fast financial settlements.