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Biden, Putin in Rare Video Talk Amid Russia-Ukraine Tensions

  • Posted Dec 8, 2021 13:25 by Rosahlee Bautista
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INTERNATIONAL: The US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin have spoken for roughly two hours by videoconference on Tuesday. Their virtual conversation was an effort to defuse a growing military crisis along Ukraine’s borders, where tens of thousands of Russian troops have massed in what U.S. officials say could be the prelude to an all-out invasion.

The meeting was one of the biggest foreign policy tests of Joe Biden’s presidency to date, with consequences for the stability of Europe, the credibility of American threats and the future of a country the United States has spent years trying to defend from Putin’s aggression.

Ukraine’s fate still hangs in the balance. The leaders’ videoconference did not resolve the crisis along Ukraine’s borders, and neither the Kremlin nor the White House reported substantial progress.

The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan has said after the meeting that Biden had offered Putin the choice between a diplomatic solution and the severe economic and political consequences that would follow a Russian invasion of Ukraine — but he did not say whether Putin had made any commitments. Putin is standing firm.

Whether Biden’s threats will deter the Russian leader from invading Ukraine is unclear. But Putin was not conciliatory. A Kremlin readout of the meeting said that Putin blamed the tensions on the West, which he said was building up its military capability in and around Ukraine. And Putin demanded legal guarantees that NATO would not expand eastward toward Russia’s borders or deploy offensive weapons systems in Ukraine.

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