The United States clashes with Russia as American Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov, where the two officials traded threats with each other.
On Thursday, Blinken spoke to reporters in Stockholm shortly after meeting with Lavrov, on the sidelines of an annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. In his address, the U.S. secretary of state said that had already communicated "clearly and directly" to the Russian foreign minister.
U.S. Versus Russia
Blinken said the issues he raised included unusual troop movements and other menacing actions by Moscow that the American government believes are a precursor to a Russian invasion of its neighbor. Ukraine, which is a former Soviet republic, has independence and Western ties that Russian President Vladimir Putin resents, the New York Times reported.
The U.S. secretary of state warned the Russian foreign minister that the American government could impose sanctions with the help of allies. The list of consequences includes severe costs on Russia if Moscow chooses to continue its aggressive actions against Ukraine.
Blinken said that the sanctions could include "high-impact economic measures that we've refrained from taking in the past." On the other hand, Lavrov also put out threats against the U.S. government. The Russian foreign minister echoed Putin's recent warnings that drawing Ukraine into the geopolitical games of the United States will have severe consequences, CNN reported.
Lavrov repeated the Russian president's demand for "long-term security guarantees" on Russia's western borders. The foreign minister said that failure to provide the guarantees means that Russia will be fully prepared to take "retaliatory measures" to correct the "military-strategic balance."
Trading of Threats
The Russian foreign minister said that the United States was "playing with fire" by preventing Russia from negotiating any further NATO expansion into countries of the former Soviet Union. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pushed for his country to join the alliance due to its promise of membership but has not given a timeline for the agreement.
In a statement during the OSCE meeting, Lavrov said that he was making it "crystal clear" that turning Russia's neighbors into a bridgehead for confronting the Russian nation that the deployment of NATO forces in the regions was categorically unacceptable.
The United States federal government and its allies have found it difficult to push Russia off of conducting military action and reaffirm support for Ukraine without being too aggressive. Being too forceful could give Putin a reason to invade.
A former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, who is a former deputy secretary-general of NATO, said that he saw little or no possibility of the U.S. or NATO giving Putin his demanded guarantees. In an interview, Vershbow said that the Russian president was simply "not going to get" an agreement to rule out further NATO expansion.
The former ambassador also argued that the U.S. or NATO will not agree to stop military assistance to Ukraine, which began in 2014. The support includes the provision of arms, training, and intelligence sharing, WHIO reported.
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