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- Conversation in fragments: Russia and the United States are in regular contact to normalize relations
Conversation in fragments: Russia and the United States are in regular contact to normalize relations
The negotiation process on the normalization of relations between the Russian Federation and the United States through the Foreign Ministry and the State Department has not stopped, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Izvestia. Contacts are regular, but their pace has decreased, the diplomat stressed. Two rounds of consultations took place more than six months ago. So far, it has not been possible to resolve the issues of resuming direct flights and returning the diplomatic property confiscated from Russia. Washington is linking the normalization of relations with the Ukrainian settlement, experts believe. Why the dialogue between the Russian Federation and the United States has slowed down and in what areas there are prospects for normalization — in the Izvestia article.
Dialogue between Russia and the United States on normalization of relations
Russia and the United States are in regular contact on the normalization of bilateral relations, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Izvestia. The dialogue continues in the operational mode.
— Currently, cooperation on "irritants" is proceeding through a diplomatic channel agreed with the American side at the working level in the interests of finding mutually acceptable "solutions" in specific areas. The contacts are regular. This is a common diplomatic practice. We don't need hype here," the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said.
The U.S. Embassy on Novinsky Boulevard, Moscow
At a minimum, progress has been made in financing the work of embassies and issuing diplomatic visas. By the way, the American side constantly insists that the main goal of these negotiations is to normalize the work of the diplomatic missions of the two countries. However, unfortunately, this has not affected the issuance of tourist visas so far. Russians can still apply only in Astana and Warsaw, including for travel to the upcoming FIFA World Cup.
Since the beginning of the dialogue between the Russian Federation and the United States, only two rounds of consultations have taken place. The results of the meetings in Istanbul on February 27 and April 10 gave hope for further productive dialogue, but nothing concrete has been heard about a new meeting for more than six months. At first, the Russian side stated that it could take place in Moscow in June, then the deadline was postponed to autumn. According to various diplomatic sources, a new round of consultations was scheduled to take place in late October or early November. Already in the middle of this month, the American Embassy told Izvestia that no further consultations were planned.
Recently, other not-so-optimistic news has begun to appear around the Russian-American normalization track. According to Russian Ambassador to the United States Alexander Darchiev, the State Department refuses to discuss the return of Russian diplomatic property. We are talking about six de facto confiscated real estate objects, to which American intelligence agencies illegally do not allow diplomats.
Progress has also not been made on the issue of flights, although there have been bold suggestions that direct flights will be launched before the end of the year. Sergei Ryabkov later noted the stalling in these areas, but this does not mean that contacts are frozen at all.
During a telephone conversation between the presidents of Russia and the United States on February 12, an understanding was reached on the need to normalize bilateral relations. The negotiation process initiated by the Foreign Ministry and the State Department, which is of mutual interest, has not stopped, the Deputy Minister assured.
— However, the pace initially set, when the teams of the foreign ministries held two rounds of consultations in the spring and reached a number of agreements on improving the functioning of diplomatic missions, has decreased. This is due to various factors, including the objective need for a gradual "melting of mutual distrust" after the "ice age" during the rule of Joe Biden in the United States and the difference in approaches to filling the agenda, which is also natural," Sergei Ryabkov stressed.
It is possible that global governance issues have now come to the fore. In particular, Russia is ready to discuss the future of the START Treaty with the United States. On September 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to adhere to quantitative restrictions for another year after the expiration of the contract on February 5, 2026. However, Washington has not yet formed a final position on the Russian proposals, although Trump has spoken positively about this initiative.
— The Americans and I are the two largest nuclear powers, we have the most powerful armies in the world, and we and they are in the top 5 largest economies on the planet. Therefore, global governance issues are among the main priorities," Georgy Asatryan, Deputy director of the Center for the Institute of World Military Economics and Strategy at the Higher School of Economics, Associate Professor at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, told Izvestia.
How the Ukrainian crisis affects relations between Russia and the United States
Of course, it is impossible to resolve all the issues that have accumulated between the parties immediately, especially after the aggressive policy of the Biden administration.
"The tangle of a huge array of "irritants" in Russian—American relations, left by the "legacy" of the previous US administration, is tightly tightened, and its unraveling requires extensive and long work," says Sergei Ryabkov.
We can hardly expect a breakthrough until we are convinced that the experience of the hybrid war between Moscow and Washington has finally become a thing of the past, says Oleg Karpovich, vice-rector of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry. First of all, we need progress on the Ukrainian track of the Russian-American dialogue.
The Trump administration is indeed linking the normalization of relations with the settlement of the conflict. Despite the fact that Washington has officially stopped providing financial assistance to Ukraine directly, American weapons are still being supplied to its zone, simply at the expense of the Europeans, and sanctions are being imposed against the Russian Federation. Restrictions on Lukoil and Rosneft have already caused a number of logistical and financial problems, given the wide representation of companies around the world. Periodic discussions about the supply of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, which, however, have not yet been put into practice, clearly do not strengthen the atmosphere of trust.
All this indicates that the seemingly pacifist policy of the White House is being met with a powerful rebuff from domestic political circles. There is probably also resistance from representatives of the so-called "deep state" in the State Department, Oleg Karpovich believes.
Trump's inconsistent policy, which is a chaotic method of "carrot and stick," sometimes causes not only criticism among Democrats, but also confusion among Republicans. After all, it is the "elephants" who are considered the beneficiaries of the American military-industrial complex, and therefore many may benefit from the continuation of hostilities.
— Even regardless of Trump's position on the Ukrainian settlement, Congress may start putting pressure on the administration. I think the same applies to the general agenda of bilateral relations between Russia and the United States," Pavel Sharikov, a researcher at the European Integration Research Department at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia.
The Russian-American dialogue on eliminating irritants may have simply become less noticeable amid the intensification of the Ukrainian track. In just one week, the settlement received a powerful impetus. The U.S. and Ukrainian delegations discussed the new peace plan in Geneva. And next week, the US President's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will personally fly to Moscow. His meetings with the Russian side usually always lead to some kind of intermediate, but positive results.
Of course, many questions were raised by the recent leak of transcripts of conversations between Steve Witkoff and Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov. Some experts argue that technically, only the Americans themselves could have access to such materials, and therefore it could be a deliberate internal effort to disrupt negotiations. There is also an opinion about the involvement of the British special services.
— Probably, even Trump himself to some extent did not expect what a powerful domestic political reaction he could receive if the Republicans considered concessions to Russia in the Ukrainian settlement unwise. And the Democrats agree with them on this," Pavel Sharikov emphasizes.
In any case, Moscow is carefully analyzing all the proposed options, and unlike the United States, it is not trying to confuse the Ukrainian settlement with the normalization of bilateral relations, offering new directions for cooperation, including economic cooperation. Potential joint projects are periodically discussed in the information field, for example, the creation of a tunnel under the Bering Strait or the extraction of rare earths.
However, the forms and models of conflict resolution should not suffer because of the potential opportunities and prospects, Georgy Asatryan noted. A theoretical solution to the crisis should be a compromise, as the Russian president said earlier, but also meet our interests and security.
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