The summit of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Joe Biden, which took place in Geneva, is evidence of the possibility of dialogue on arms control, regardless of the existing differences in the bilateral relations of the states. This was announced on Wednesday, June 30, by German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer during a conference at the " German Marshall Fund of the United States "(recognized as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation).
"First of all, I believe that this summit sent a positive signal that such a dialogue can take place, as well as the fact that <...> (there are areas — Ed.), for example, arms control, disarmament, the extension of the Treaty on Measures for Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Weapons, where you see that, despite all the conflicts, there is a plane for dialogue," the German defense minister TASS quotes.
Earlier, on June 29, the defender of the interests of the Russian-speaking stratum of the population of Latvia, the chairman of the social Democratic party "Consent" Janis Urbanovich said that the decision of the Eastern European states, including Riga, to abandon the dialogue with Russia at the level of the European Union plays against these countries. He referred to the Geneva summit of the Russian and American leaders, which was a demonstration of the change in the tone of relations between Russia and the United States.
On June 23, the Financial Times newspaper reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed to hold a meeting between the leaders of the EU countries and Putin. It was noted that the initiative of inviting the Russian leader to the summit with the heads of the alliance countries was supported by French President Emmanuel Macron. The idea was also positively assessed by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
Relations between Moscow and the West have deteriorated due to the situation in Ukraine and around Crimea, which in 2014 was reunited with Russia following the results of a referendum held on the peninsula. Western countries, accusing the country of interference, imposed sanctions against it, Moscow took retaliatory measures, took a course on import substitution and repeatedly stated that talking in the language of sanctions is counterproductive.
