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In a telephone conversation with Putin, Biden “expressed our concern about the sudden mobilization of Russian troops in occupied Crimea and on the borders of Ukraine and called on Russia to reduce tensions,” the White House said in a statement.
“President Biden has reaffirmed his goal of building stable and predictable relations with Russia that are in the interest of the United States,” he added.
In addition, the US leader “proposed to hold a meeting in a third country in the coming months to discuss all the problems facing the United States and Russia,” the report said.
This would be the first meeting between Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin. Biden came to the White House promising a tougher stance on Russia, also because of his alleged interference in the US elections and the treatment of opponent Alexei Navaln.
The Kremlin, for its part, said that during a telephone conversation, Putin and Biden agreed to “continue the dialogue” on global security.
“Both sides have expressed their willingness to continue dialogue in the most important areas of global security,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
It also confirms that Biden had offered to meet Putin “in the near future,” but the Kremlin did not indicate whether the Russian leader had agreed.
In 2018, Putin met with then-US President Donald Trump in Finland. That meeting in the United States sparked outrage as the Republican appeared to support the Kremlin host’s claim that Moscow did not intervene in the 2016 US elections, despite US intelligence agencies claiming otherwise.
Putin last month offered Biden virtual talks when the US leader equated the Russian president with a “murderer,” but Washington did not respond.
Although the two leaders reached an agreement to extend a major nuclear pact shortly after Biden’s inauguration, his comment about the “killer” raised tensions between Moscow and Washington.
Tensions have risen recently due to the movement of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine and in occupied Crimea. According to the United States, the number of troops is the highest since 2014, when war broke out with Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine after the annexation of the Crimean peninsula.
Kiev and the West accuse Russia of supporting the separatists with troops and weapons. Moscow denies the allegations.
The protracted conflict in Ukraine has already cost more than 13 thousand people. it lives. The recent resumption of regular fighting threatens last year’s ceasefire.
Russia said Tuesday it had deployed troops along its western border for “exercises” in response to “threatening” NATO actions.
In a statement about Putin’s phone conversation with the US leader, the Kremlin said that the Russian president had outlined a resolution to the conflict based on the 2015 Minsk accords drawn up by Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine, but has not so far. they had helped finish. The fight.
In addition, Putin and Biden discussed Iran’s nuclear program, Afghanistan peace talks and global climate change on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
At the time, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba visited Brussels on Tuesday to meet with senior officials from NATO countries, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
