Putin warns of attempts to sabotage talks with US
Western elites are “not happy” about a potential rapprochement between Moscow and Washington and will seek to “compromise” the recently resumed dialogue between the two powers, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
Under US President Donald Trump’s administration, Russia and the US have started to gradually restore contacts that were virtually non-existent for approximately three years under his predecessor, Joe Biden.
High-ranking Russian and American delegations met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia earlier this month. Following the talks, both nations agreed to work toward ending the Ukraine conflict and improving diplomatic and economic relations.
Speaking at the meeting of the board of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) on Thursday, Putin said that contacts with the Trump administration “inspire hope.” The two sides are willing to work on restoring bilateral relations, as well as resolving “systemic” issues in the global security architecture that led to the Ukraine conflict and other crises. Yet, some forces want to prevent that from happening, the president warned.
“We realize that not everyone is happy to see Russia-US contacts resume. A portion of Western elites are still committed to maintaining instability in the world, and these forces will try to disrupt or to compromise the newly resumed dialogue,” he said. “We need to keep this in mind and leverage every possibility offered by diplomacy and special services to thwart such attempts,” he told the gathered FSB officials.
According to Putin, the new US administration is demonstrating “pragmatism and a realistic vision of things.” Moscow’s “partners” in Washington “have abandoned numerous stereotypes, the so-called rules, and messianic, ideological clichés of their predecessors, which, in fact, caused the crisis of the entire system of international relations,” he said.
Putin has indicated Moscow’s readiness to resolve the Ukraine conflict through peaceful means. He emphasized Russia’s aim of establishing an international system that ensures a balanced and mutual consideration of interests, creating a long-term, indivisible European and global security framework. This system would prevent the security of certain countries from being guaranteed at the expense of others, including Russia.
Since the Riyadh talks, Washington has said it was open to economic cooperation with Russia. On Thursday, diplomats from two nations held closed-door talks in Istanbul focused on restoring the work of their diplomatic missions. According to a Bloomberg report this week, Moscow and Washington have also been discussing cooperation in the Arctic.
