At the turn of the year, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram to Joe Biden that read almost like a love letter from Moscow. Putin invoked the historically grown, joint responsibility of the two nuclear powers for international and regional stability. He offered constructive cooperation on the basis of “mutual respect” and “consideration of the national interests of the other”.
With the text, which was published on Thursday, Putin set the tone for the telephone conversation with Biden planned for the evening, which was supposed to focus primarily on the Ukraine crisis: Moscow and Washington are negotiating the fate of Europe, and the Europeans will find out at some point what’s up.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, his predecessor Angela Merkel and former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder were on the list of New Year’s wishes published by the Kremlin. At first nothing was known about greetings to Brussels, but what Putin thinks of the European Union and its institutions is also known: nothing. This is evident not least in the struggle for the future of Ukraine.
Contempt for the EU representative
Russia is fueling the fear of an invasion with a deployment of troops and now wants to extort concessions from the West in negotiations: no eastward expansion of the EU and NATO, no new bases in their sphere of influence. In an interview with the EU’s Foreign Affairs Officer Josep Borrell this week, demanded world, the Europeans should be involved. But that the Russian government is not taking Borrell seriously, it was already evident in February during his visit to Moscow: During his conversation with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in which the case of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny was discussed, the expulsion of three EU- Known to diplomats from Russia. An affront. At the following press conference Lavrov punished EU representative Borrell with contempt. Will he now be heard?
In Geneva on January 10th, US and Russian delegations are due to talk about a new European security architecture. Russia also wants to negotiate with NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). So far there is no talk of the EU. The US government has assured the Europeans of “transparency” on talks with Putin. “Nothing about them without them” is the language: there is no agreement with Putin without the Europeans agreeing.
The Ukrainian government insists in vain to be involved in the negotiations on the future of their country, but it has made it clear that, in case of doubt, it would rather confide its fate to US President Joe Biden than to the Europeans. The EU is investing a lot of money in the development of Ukraine, but the weapons for the Ukrainian army come from the USA.
Harsh punitive measures threaten
It was Vladimir Putin who asked for the phone call with Joe Biden that we had arranged for Thursday evening. The conversation was so important to him that he accepted an appointment at midnight in Moscow. Allegedly, the aim was to prepare the negotiations in Geneva. The White House reported that Biden would use the phone call to campaign for a diplomatic solution to the conflict over Ukraine, but also threatened with severe punitive measures in the event of an invasion.
“We have coordinated with our allies to impose harsh sanctions on the Russian economy and the financial system – much more than what was implemented in 2014,” said a representative of the US government on Wednesday. At that time, Russia had occupied the Crimean peninsula and began to fuel the civil war in eastern Ukraine. If the worst comes to the worst, they are also prepared to expand NATO’s presence in the Eastern European member states and to support Ukraine “in order to defend their territory”. It didn’t sound like a love affair to Moscow.