In her meeting today with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria “Maidan” Nuland, appeared committed to doing nothing to change the current hostile relationship with Moscow, rejecting the offer by Ryabkov to engage in negotiations over the restrictions imposed on each other’s diplomatic missions—a practice begun by the United States against Russia—and on the granting of visas to diplomatic personnel. According to both The Hill and The Moscow Times, nothing positive came out of the meeting. Ryabkov warned Nuland that hostile anti-Russia actions wouldn’t go unanswered and that further attempts to provoke confrontation, especially in the context of a difficult international and regional situation, could only lead to a further deterioration in bilateral relations.
As to whether any progress was made on the issuance of visas, the restoration of the number of diplomatic personnel, and the operations of embassies in both countries, Ryabkov said, “I cannot say we made much headway. Those issues, visas, the terms of embassy operations, rotation of diplomatic staff, and overall normalization of the activity of Russian diplomatic missions in the United States and U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia, have substantial crisis potential, and we do not rule out certain escalations in those areas. This is what we told our American colleagues frankly.”
There are some other areas of bilateral work, he said, in which “we have grounds to intensify the dialogue, and I believe that our relevant agencies will address these matters in the foreseeable future. We have agreed not to delay a specialized round of expert consultations on the issue, and this is also important,” he said. “However, progress on the substance of current problems has been miniscule. There is also a risk of new escalations,” Ryabkov said. He also raised concerns about the recently-created AUKUS agreement among the U.S., the U.K., and Australia, particularly as this relates to matters of nuclear non-proliferation, as well as concerns over U.S. plans to expand military activity in Central Asia.
