Top diplomats from the United States and Russia are set to square off this week in Iceland for their first face-to-face encounter that comes as ties between the nations deteriorated sharply in recent months.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russia’s longtime Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov plan to talk Wednesday on the sidelines of an Arctic Council meeting in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik, a city with a deep history in US-Russian relations.
Even before the talks – which are ostensibly to prepare for a summit between President Joe Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin next month – the two diplomats laid down near diametrically opposed positions for the meeting, previewing what is likely to be a difficult and contentious exchange.
This follows a spate of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions as US-Russian relations threaten a return to Cold War lows.
The nuclear powers are at odds on myriad issues including Ukraine, the Arctic, Russia’s treatment of opposition figure Alexey Navalny and accusations of cyber malfeasance, including claims that Russia-based hackers were responsible for a ransomware attack on a key US pipeline.
“It would be our preference to have a more stable and more predictable relationship with Russia,” Blinken said on Tuesday. “At the same time, we’ve been very clear that if Russia chooses to take reckless or aggressive actions that target our interests or those of our allies and partners, we’ll respond. Not for purposes of seeking conflict or escalating but because such challenges cannot be allowed to go forward with impunity.”
Blinken also tweeted on Tuesday the US’s condemnation of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
“We condemn Russia’s abuses in Crimea, especially on May 18 as we reflect on the 77th anniversary of Stalin’s deportation of countless Crimean Tatars from their native peninsula,” he posted.
Perhaps anticipating Blinken’s position, Lavrov had offered a prebuttal at a news conference Monday in Moscow.
“Apparently, a (US) decision was made to promote stable, predictable relations with Russia,” he said.
“However, if this includes constant and predictable sanctions, that’s not what we need. Our attitude toward the US includes the hope that normalised relations will be based on specific actions rather than words of which we have heard too many.”
