Washington and Moscow working to ‘quietly’ forge closer relations

Government officials in Washington and Moscow are engaged in a “flurry” of behind-the-scenes talks amid efforts to bolster relations between the US and Russia.

Representatives of both countries told The New York Times (NYT) that the “beneath-the-surface” negotiations have “so far yielded little of substance but help to prevent Russian-American tensions from spiraling out of control”.

“It might seem as if little has changed for Russia and the US,” the paper added, with “two old adversaries seeking to undercut each other around the world”. But “beneath the surface brinkmanship, the two global rivals are now also doing something else: talking”.

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‘Working relationship’

Speaking at an energy conference in Moscow two months ago, Vladimir Putin “called on the US and his country to gradually restore relations”, The Independent said.

Addressing the Russian Energy Week International Forum, the president spoke about “issues ranging from European energy and defence policy to US sanctions”, the paper added.

Putin said he currently has a “working” relationship with Joe Biden, adding that “no one won” under the current regime of sanctions put in place by the White House.

At the same time, Biden has “shown a willingness to work with Russia in conversations with Putin”, reported the paper, “while vowing to hold Russia accountable for further efforts to attack US interests”.

“My bottom line is this: there is an interest in the United States to work with Russia. We should and we will,” Biden told reporters in early October. But “when Russia seeks to violate the interests of the United States, we will respond”.

While public pronouncements by both Moscow and Washington hinted at the possibility of cooling relations between the two major powers, behind the scenes “a serious conversation” was already under way, the NYT said.

A summit between Biden and Putin in Geneva in June “touched off a series of contacts between the two countries”, the paper continued. This included “three trips to Moscow by senior Biden administration officials since July, and more meetings with Russian officials on neutral ground in Finland and Switzerland”.

These “quiet” negotiations have resulted in the “deepest” talks around arms control “in years”, the paper added, as well as spurring a discussion over whether Putin would be willing to “facilitate a crackdown on ransomware and other cybercrime”.

If the talks are able to produce results, it will be because “what the Russians hate more than anything else is to be disregarded”, Fiona Hill, who served as the top Russia expert under Donald Trump before testifying in his impeachment hearings, told the paper.

“They want to be a major player on the stage, and if we’re not paying that much attention to them they are going to find ways of grabbing our attention.”

Uneasy truce

The relationship between Washington and Moscow is by no means perfect, with Putin’s decision not to attend Cop26 in Glasgow placing further pressure on the pair.

Biden said on Sunday that he “blamed Russia and China for any disappointment over the level of commitment by G20 leaders to fight climate change” during their conference in Rome last week, Politico said.

“With regard to the disappointment, the disappointment relates to the fact that… not only Russia but China basically didn’t show up in terms of any commitments to deal with climate change,” he told reporters. “And there’s a reason why people should be disappointed in that,” he added. “I found it disappointing myself.”

The president made clear that “he expected significant progress in Glasgow” at Cop26, The Telegraph said. “It’s going to require us to continue to focus on what China’s not doing and what Russia is not doing,” he added.

Russia, despite Putin’s decision not to attend, has said “they will still send a strong delegation and that climate change remains a priority for the country”, said the BBC’s environment correspondent Matt McGrath.

But “it will undoubtedly be a disappointment” that Putin has declined an invitation to attend in person given hopes that the president “would be open to making progress on a number of issues, including deforestation”, he added.

For the US, “outreach” to Moscow “is fraught with risk”, the NYT said. The main danger is “exposing the Biden administration to criticism that it is too willing to engage with a Putin-led Russia that continues to undermine American interests and repress dissent”.

Meanwhile, European officials also “worry Russia is playing hardball amid the region’s energy crisis”, while “the destructive nature of Russia’s cybercampaign” against the US has “officials particularly concerned”.

Biden’s “measured approach” has, however, “earned plaudits in Russia’s foreign policy establishment”, the paper added. And from Washington’s perspective, “the talks are a way to try to head off geopolitical surprises that could derail Biden’s priorities”.

“Biden understands the importance of a sober approach,” Fyodor Lukyanov, a foreign policy analyst who advises the Kremlin, told the NYT. “The most important thing that Biden understands is that he won’t change Russia. Russia is the way it is.”