During her testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland dangled a carrot in front of Moscow, one that the Biden administration probably never intends to serve. “In the context of the Russian decision to negotiate seriously and withdraw its forces from Ukraine, I would certainly favor and I believe Secretary Blinken would also favor sanctions relief,” she said.
At the Kremlin, spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Nuland’s carrot as not reflecting any change in U.S. intransigence. “We are not at all inclined to exaggerate the significance of the statements of Mrs. [Victoria] Nuland, nothing new has been said,” Peskov said, reported TASS. In Peskov’s view, “nothing new was stated.”
