US Wants to Keep Diplomacy Open with Russia

By Staff, Agencies

US State Department Spokesman Ned Price said on Monday that Washington and Moscow will keep their diplomatic missions in each other’s countries open, and will maintain de-confliction channels. Earlier, Moscow summoned the American ambassador over US President Joe Biden’s “unacceptable” comments on his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, warning that relations with the US were “on the brink of collapse.”

“We believe it’s very important to maintain channels of communication with Russia. Open dialog is crucial, especially during times of tension, especially during times of conflict,” Price told reporters at a regular State Department press conference in Washington. “We have sought to maintain a diplomatic presence in Moscow [and] we have sought for the Russians to be able to continue to maintain a diplomatic presence in the US,” he added.

Price also pointed to the setting up of “de-confliction channels on a tactical level with Moscow” as proof that the US and Russia would remain in contact despite Washington’s efforts to isolate Moscow on the global stage.

Price made the comments hours after Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned US ambassador John Sullivan to warn him that relations between the US and Russia were “on the brink of collapse” over “unacceptable” statements by Biden.

Biden last week called Putin a “murderer” and a “war criminal,” with Secretary of State Tony Blinken echoing the “war criminal” charge in statements of his own. The Russian ministry said that such statements were “unworthy of a statesman of such a high rank.”

While Moscow’s public telling-off of Sullivan marks its official response to Biden’s statements, the Kremlin has already responded informally, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that Biden’s rhetoric was “unacceptable and unforgivable” from the president of a state “whose bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world.”

The Kremlin spokesperson later added that Biden’s “irritability” and “forgetfulness” were contributing to such “aggressive statements.”

While the Biden administration has refused to intervene militarily in the ongoing Russia/Ukraine war, Washington has funneled arms and ammunition to Kiev, and earmarked billions of dollars for future weapons shipments to Ukraine.

The US has also imposed crippling economic sanctions on Russia, which Moscow has described as “economic warfare,” and Biden said were explicitly designed to “crater” the Russian economy.

Russia started a special military operation in Ukraine on 24 February. The Kremlin said the goal was to "demilitarize and de-Nazify" its neighbor and protect the people from the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics suffering at the hands of the Ukrainian military.

The military operation has received strong condemnation from the Wests, with nations imposing harsh sanctions targeting Russian businesses, culture, financial sector, media outlets, and many other areas.