The presidents of the United States and Russia have held a summit by videoconference, in which Joe Biden has asked Vladimir Putin to reduce tensions and “return to diplomacy.”
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, has threatened his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, with “strong economic and other measures“and attack Ukraine, and has asked him to lower tensions and “return to diplomacy,” according to the White House.
At a summit with Putin via videoconference, Biden “has expressed the deep concerns of the United States and its European allies about Russia’s military escalation around Ukraine,” the White House said in a brief statement after the meeting.
Biden “has made it clear that the United States and its allies will respond with strong economic and other measures in the event of a military escalation” by Russia, his office has assured.
The US president “has reiterated his support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and has called for a de-escalation and a return to diplomacy,” the note added.
After the conversation, which lasted about two hours, the two presidents “have commissioned their teams to follow up” on what was spoken, and the United States plans to do so “in a coordinated manner with its allies and partners”, especially in Europe. according to the White House.
Other topics discussed at the meeting
During the summit, Biden and Putin also spoke about the bilateral dialogue between their countries about strategic stability, and on another initiative between Washington and Moscow regarding cyberattacks with “ransomware”, a program that hijacks user data in exchange for a payment to release it.
In addition, they have talked about “regional issues like Iran”, at a time when talks to save the Iranian nuclear deal, from which the United States withdrew in 2018, are at a delicate point.
The White House is already working on a package of strong economic sanctions, with European partners and Ukraine itself, to deter Putin from an eventual attack on that country, contiguous with Russia and on whose borders between 70,000 and 94,000 soldiers are concentrated. Russians, according to US intelligence and Kiev.
The US believes that Russia could attack or invade Ukraine with some 175,000 soldiers, and Kiev estimates that the most likely moment of a new Russian aggression would be at the end of January 2022.
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