The administration of US President Joe Biden likes to say that Russia has become isolated internationally because of its invasion of Ukraine. Yet Moscow’s top officials have hardly been cloistered in the Kremlin, and now even the US wants to talk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been meeting with world leaders, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country is a NATO member. Meanwhile, his top diplomat, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, is jetting around the world, smiling, shaking hands and posing for photos with foreign leaders — including some friends of the US.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said he wants to end months of top-level US diplomatic estrangement with Lavrov to discuss the release of US detainees, as well as issues related to Ukraine. The call has not been scheduled, but is expected in coming days.
Photo: AP
The handshakes and phone calls cast doubt on a core part of the US strategy aimed at ending the Ukraine war — that diplomatic and economic isolation, along with battlefield setbacks, would ultimately force Russia to send its troops home.
Even as he announced plans for the call, Blinken continued to insist Russia is indeed isolated. He said the travel of its top officials is purely damage control and a reaction to international criticism Moscow is facing for the Ukraine war.
US officials said that Russia is trying to shore up the few alliances it has left has left. Some are American adversaries, such as Iran, but countries that are ostensibly US partners, like Egypt and Uganda, are also warmly welcoming top Russians.
After making the case since February that Russia is not serious about diplomacy and cannot be trusted, the US has conceded that it needs to engage with Moscow as well.
The public outreach to Lavrov, combined with the announcement of a “substantial proposal” to Russia to win the release of detained Americans Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner, took many by surprise.
A Blinken-Lavrov conversation would be the highest-level contact between the US and Russia since Feb. 15, before the Russian invasion, and could set the stage for possible in-person discussions.
The Kremlin is likely to delay the process of arranging a call to gain maximum advantage.
“They are going to drag this out and try to humiliate us as much as they can,” said Ian Kelly, a retired career diplomat who served as US ambassador to Georgia in the two previous presidential administrations.
Kelly said the request for a call is “counterproductive to our broader effort to isolate Russia.”
“Other countries will look at this and say, ‘Why shouldn’t we deal with Lavrov or the Russians more broadly?’” he said.
Western appeals to convince Asian, African and Middle Eastern nations to shun Russia appear to have been ignored as Lavrov travels around the world.
Still, Blinken played down the importance of Lavrov’s globetrotting. He said it was a response to the cold reception Russia has received to Ukraine-related wheat and grain shortages now plaguing large portions of the developing world, particularly as a UN-backed agreement to free up those supplies has yet to be implemented.
US and European officials have said that Russia has come under heavy criticism for the Ukraine invasion, along with the food and energy security shortages that have resulted.
Biden administration officials, including Blinken, seemed to boast that Lavrov chose to leave a recent meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Indonesia after listening to a litany of complaints from counterparts about the global impact of the war.
Despite that, there is no sign Russia would be excluded from major international events such as the ASEAN Regional Forum next week, the UN General Assembly in September or a trio of leaders’ summits be held in Asia in November.
Russia continues to maintain close ties with China, India and numerous developing countries throughout Asia and Africa. Many depend on Russia for energy and other exports, although they also rely on Ukraine for grain.
India has not shunned Russia despite its membership in the so-called Quad with the US, Australia and Japan. With a longstanding close relationship with Russia, India has boosted energy imports from Russia despite pressure from the US and Europe, which is moving away from Russian gas and oil.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has countered the assertions of the country’s isolation by posting photographs on social media showing Lavrov at the the G20 meeting in Bali with Chinese, Indian and Indonesian foreign ministers; in Uganda with President Yoweri Museveni, a longtime US partner; and in Egypt with President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, also a US partner.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS