On October 30, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said that leadership, including Russian President Putin , is ready to talk to the West. "Putin, in particular, is still ready to negotiate on the Ukraine issue."
Lavrov said that in the past six months, "the Americans have proposed several initiatives, and some other Western colleagues have asked to speak on the phone with Russian leaders." Russia is willing to engage in dialogue with Western countries in an "equal way" to ease the current tense situation.
However, Lavrov also emphasized the initiative in the negotiations in the West: "If Western partners make a request to arrange dialogue again, we are ready to listen to their opinions at any time. I hope that in addition to maintaining contact through diplomacy and other channels, in addition to publicly publicizing remarks, they can also propose some serious measures to us to help ease tensions and fully take into account the interests of the Russian Federation and its security."
Putin's press secretary Peskov explained on the same day that whether the talks will be held between Putin and Biden will depend on whether the Washington "willing to listen to the security concerns of Moscow ." Specifically, it depends on "whether the United States wants to return to its state from December to January this year, and seriously consider the situation that Russia's conditions may not be suitable for all of us, but perhaps we should still sit at the negotiation table with them?"
In mid-December last year, Russia listed Moscow's security requirements, two of the most important ones, one is to ban Ukraine from joining NATO , and the other is to restrict the deployment of troops and weapons on the eastern flank of NATO. Both requests were rejected by the United States and NATO at that time.
So, Putin's spokesperson now proposed to return to the state from December to January this year, which may be a reminder to the United States: Can we reconsider the security concerns raised by Moscow now? For example, guarantee that Ukraine will not join NATO? Using this as a prerequisite for negotiations between the West and Russia?
After all, the negotiations that Moscow agreed to participate in cannot be without a threshold.
However, no matter what the threshold is, the positive attitude and not perfunctory explanation of Moscow's statement this time are impressive.
Obviously, Moscow's attitude is different from that of a week or two ago.
Just earlier this month, Putin made it clear that he felt it was “no need” to negotiate with the U.S. president and explained that “because there is no platform for negotiation yet.” This statement also received an equally clear response from White House . The White House said Biden has no plans to meet with Russian leaders at the G20 summit next month.
Look at the title of the report on the US Political News Network 10 days ago, and you will know how stiff the US-Russian relations were at that time: "The White House does everything possible to avoid Biden and Putin meeting directly at the G20 summit"
The article reads: Biden and Putin will both attend the G20 summit held next month in Indonesia . Against the backdrop of fierce conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the two "may have a high-risk standoff."
And U.S. officials are taking measures to "make sure this doesn't happen". They not only rule out the possibility of any formal meeting between the U.S. and Russia leaders, but are also taking measures to ensure that the U.S. president "does not meet the Russian president in the corridor or when the leader takes a photo."
However, another relatively dramatic event that happened last week shows that even within the Democratic Party led by Biden, some people hope to negotiate with Putin. 30 Democratic Congressmen of the United States issued an open letter urging Biden to have a "direct dialogue" with Putin to end the Ukrainian conflict. Although, under heavy pressure, they took back the letter.
But this letter, which has been sent, has had some impact on the current statements of the Russian Foreign Minister and Putin's spokesperson, should not be ruled out.
Another overlooked news was that US Secretary of Defense Austin publicly stated three days ago that talks with Russia were "very important" to avoid the escalation of the situation in Ukraine.
On October 27, local time, he said at a press conference of the US Department of Defense that the United States has been worried about the escalation of the conflict since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. "That's why we think it's important to communicate with our allies, partners, and our opponents. As long as we have a clear communication channel and can communicate about what is important to us, then we have the opportunity to control the escalation of things."
Austin also said that Pentagon did not see any sign that Putin has decided to use " dirty bomb " and no sign that Ukraine is planning to use "dirty bomb".
Any signal conducive to peace deserves respect, especially in the face of the cold and cruel winter that is coming in Ukraine.
This time, Putin kicked the ball at the feet of the United States and NATO again, and how the Ukrainians and Europeans will spend the winter this year depends on how sincerity and wisdom both sides can show for peace.
