During a working visit to San Francisco this week, Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov spoke to reporters about the sorry state of U.S.-Russia relations, and called on the U.S. to use the lessons of the Cuban missile crisis.
“[F]rankly speaking, we need ...to look closely at the outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis to figure out how the two countries managed to solve the problem. Perhaps, the time has come to look back at history and try to use the lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis? We were on the brink of a nuclear conflict back then. Still, the two governments found the strength to take a step back or to meet each other halfway in order to resolve the issue, and they succeeded,” he stressed. The situation has certainly changed, we can’t simply say that things are the same as they were 60 years ago. Perhaps, new schemes need to be found. For our part, we are ready to hold an open conversation at least on stabilizing Russia-U.S. relations,” Antonov noted, according to TASS news agency.
The “alarming” situation in the Ukraine conflict requires a negotiated solution, he argued, criticizing the U.S. latest decision to provide more supplies of weapons to Ukraine. “Our so-called partners continue with a wrong policy believing that the problem can be solved on the battlefield and keep spending more energy and means. Now they are amassing armed forces near the Russian borders. The developing situation is extremely alarming. In fact, in Ukraine, on the Ukrainian soil, we are fighting not against the Ukrainians, but against the collective West, which tries to undermine the foundations of Russia, to exhaust us, to deplete us of all economic and military resources and to stage a situation, in which Russia would never have a chance to negotiate equally with the Western countries on the international arena,” he stressed.
