"Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war" Sir Winston Churchill one said, and on that he was correct. Having had his plans exposed again for a military invasion of Ukraine on Wednesday by the Biden White House, Russian President Vladimir Putin suddenly feels like "leaving the door open for diplomacy".
Russian President Vladimir Putin left the door open Monday to further talks with Western leaders on his efforts to end NATO’s open door policy, when his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the scope for dialogue was “far from exhausted” and called for intensified talks with Washington and NATO.
Putin met Lavrov in the Kremlin Monday in what appeared to be a scripted moment on Russia’s formal response to the rejection of its key security demands by Washington and NATO – including its demand that the alliance bar Ukraine from ever joining.
Putin opposed "the endless, in our opinion, and very dangerous expansion of NATO to the East,” but supported the Foreign Ministry’s conclusion on a need to keep talking, RIA Novosti reported, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Reporting to Putin formally on Russia’s bid to end NATO expansion, Lavrov said the rejection of Russia’s key security demands by Washington and NATO did not satisfy Moscow. But he added that there was room for further dialogue.
He said that NATO wanted to determine Europe’s security architecture without reference to Russia but that talks with the United States and NATO “now must be developed and intensified.”
Lavrov added: “I have already said more than once that we warn against endless conversations on issues that need to be resolved today, but still, probably, being the head of the Foreign Ministry, I must say that there is always a chance.”
Peskov, in a call with journalists, insisted on Moscow’s right to move its troops anywhere within Russia’s borders, saying there were “equally large” movements of Kyiv’s forces in Ukraine which he said led to “a serious deterioration of the situation.”
As massive Russian military drills continued with Belarus, in the Black Sea, in southern Russia and other parts of the country, Putin also met Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who said that some drills were coming to an end and others would be completed “in the near future.”
Earlier, the Kremlin continued to press Ukraine to drop its NATO membership plan after Ukrainian officials explicitly ruled it out.
And German Chancellor Olaf Scholz began a two-day trip to Kyiv and Moscow to try to de-escalate the NATO-Russia crisis over Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry ruled out any compromise Monday on its aim of joining NATO and called for security guarantees to deter a Russian invasion, amid warnings from U.S. officials that Russia could launch an attack on Ukraine at any time.
Peskov said that if Ukraine withdrew its bid for membership in the alliance, this could allay some of Russia’s security concerns. Moscow insists that Ukraine’s joining the alliance is a “red line” that would threaten its security — while Kyiv argues that it poses no threat to Russia and that it is seeking membership to guarantee its security.
Keeping Putin talking is surely better than keeping Putin shooting, even if the sticking point is obviously NATO membership for Ukraine. Remember that Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet empire, and that NATO and the US does not want him doing that, and for Putin to get his way, he can't openly pick a fight with the entirely of the alliance.
Diplomacy by other means and all, but it's still diplomacy.
On the other hand, this could all be Putin wanting to catch everyone with their pants down and then kicking in the front door and taking Kyiv before anyone can react.
We'll see.
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