Reprinted from Responsible Statecraft (Quincy Institute) with permission.
A coalition of both conservative and progressive foreign policy organizations have delivered a letter to the White House, asking the president to pursue a broad diplomatic path with the Russians in the much-anticipated U.S.-Russia talks on Monday and in NATO meetings later next week.
The letter, which was signed by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, asks the White House to pursue the Minsk agreements which would “demilitarize the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine and guarantee meaningful political autonomy to the region while retaining Ukrainian sovereignty over the area and its borders.” QI fellow Anatol Lieven has detailed the agreement and the promise it would hold for peace in the region here.
De-escalation is key, wrote the signing organizations, which also emphasized the need to stop NATO expansion and resist calls to send U.S. troops to defend Ukraine.
We echo the call by over 100 former US officials and leading scholars who stated that, in addition to addressing
urgent security challenges, we must engage in a serious and sustained strategic dialogue with Russia “that addresses the deeper sources of mistrust and hostility” while deterring Russian military aggression. These dialogues must engage with President Putin’s explicit pursuit of “reliable and long-term security guarantees” that would “exclude any further NATO moves eastward and the deployment of weapons systems that threaten us in close vicinity to Russian territory.
Interestingly, reports emerged Friday that suggested that the White House was willing to reduce the number of US troops in Eastern Europe and scale back military exercises in the region – for an equivalent reduction of Russian troops in the area. In an accompanying statement, the White House disputed that Washington was weighing troop cuts.
Read the full letter here.
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos is a Senior Advisor at the Quincy Institute and Contributing Editor at Responsible Statecraft. She comes to QI from The American Conservative, where for the last three years she served as the magazine’s executive editor and remains a co-host on the Empire Has No Clothes podcast. Follow her on Twitter @VlahosAtQuincy.
Well, here are the results of the preliminary talks held on Sunday.
Blinken: US, Russia won’t see any breakthroughs ‘in the coming week’
https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/588909-blinken-says-he-doesnt-think-us-russia-will-see-any-breakthroughs
Russia Will Not Bow to US Pressure or Make Any Concessions, Deputy FM Says Ahead of Geneva Meeting
https://sputniknews.com/20220109/russia-will-not-bow-to-us-pressure-or-make-any-concessions-deputy-fm-says-ahead-of-geneva-meeting-1092126786.html
And the one supposedly positive statement:
Russia reveals outcome of first Geneva meeting with US
https://www.rt.com/russia/545525-ryabkov-meeting-awesome-talks/
Not clear what Ryabkov meant by “stunning”. I stand by my prediction that the talks will likely collapse almost instantly. There may or may not be any scheduling of further talks. I still think Ukraine and Russia will be at war either this month, next month or in the summer. It’s possible the US will promise Russia to force Ukraine to implement the Minsk agreement – then fail to do so for months again, forcing Russia to take some military action against Ukraine or Ukraine to attack Donbass again by summer.
Update: Another response by Ryabkov, equally clear that the expected US negotiating tactics will go nowhere:
Moscow Won’t Stoop to Discussing NATO Demands on ‘De-escalation Measures’ on Russia’s Own Territory
https://sputniknews.com/20220109/russia-has-not-been-thrown-off-balance-by-us-tough-position-on-security-guarantees-moscow-says-1092135168.html
There are no “military actions” possible against Russia in Eastern Europe and the Russian march lands that won’t end in quick and decisive defeat for the US/NATO. The west’s 1990s game is up. Even the dirty US quisling, Stoltenberg, is beginning to get it.