Commenting on the talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs Leonid Slutsky said that their results give grounds for cautious optimism, "although, of course, no one expects miracles."
On Tuesday, the two-hour-long conversation between the presidents took place. The conversations were held in the format of closed-door videoconferencing.
" Overall, the results of the summit, as they say, give grounds for cautious optimism, although, of course, no one is expecting miracles. There have been too many acute contradictions, and they've been piling up for too long," Slutsky said in his Telegram channel, noting that news reports from the dialogue give some hope that the tensions of the past month will subside, "as does the degree of anti-Russian hysteria in Western political and media outlets".
The deputy also drew attention to the discussion of the situation in Ukraine, "around which Washington has recently been playing up a real 'pre-war' hysteria".
"Biden, after the US failure in Afghanistan, apparently badly needs to raise his rating at the expense of 'preventing' a new war, which Russia certainly was not going to start," Slutsky wrote.
He also drew attention to Putin's position, which illustrated "Kiev's destructive line to dismantle the Minsk agreements."
"At the same time, the Russian leader directly outlined those "red lines" whose crossing is unacceptable for Moscow. Russia is interested in getting legally recorded guarantees that exclude the expansion of the Alliance to the east and the deployment of strike offensive systems in our neighboring countries," said the head of the Duma committee.
He also drew attention to the fate of the congressional amendments on sanctions against Russia.
"At the end of the videoconference, the US side once again threatened to stop the launch of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The White House called it "leverage to pressure Moscow not to risk an invasion of Ukraine." Note, however, that during the negotiations of the two presidents, it became known that the amendments proposed by Congressmen and agreed by the House of Representatives to the defense budget of the US, which would have prohibited the US Government to purchase Russian sovereign debt, as well as sanctions against 35 Russians "from Putin's entourage", were removed from the approved by the Congress. So for now, words are words, but deeds are deeds," Slutsky concluded.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Federation Council
Based on materials from RIA Novosti