Biden-Putin hold second phone call over Ukraine, failed to draw conclusion

미러 정상 두번째 통화... 바이든 "단호히 대응"- 푸틴 "큰 실수 될 것"

The leaders of the U.S. and Russia held another phone call a couple of hours ago... over rising tensions on the Ukrainian border.
No concrete conclusions were drawn, with two sides restating their previous stances.
Related discussions will continue in Geneva next month.
Lee Kyung-eun has the details.
U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone for nearly an hour on Thursday amid growing tensions over Russia's troop buildup near Ukraine.
The phone call requested by Putin is their second conversation in a month.

Neither side released any details immediately, but both leaders reportedly re-stated their previous stances.

According to White House spokesperson, Biden made clear that the U.S. and its allies will respond decisively if Russia invades Ukraine.
Based on what senior official told reporters,... that would mean one of the “two paths" laid out by Biden which may include economic sanctions and strengthening NATO's force posture.
The other is "diplomacy and de-escalation" which is in line with Washington's continued push to solve the issue "diplomatically."

Meanwhile, according to Reuters, Putin's foreign affairs advisor said... that in response to Biden's warning of new sanctions, Putin made a warning of his own.
Putin reportedly said that such a move by the U.S... would be a "huge mistake" that would entail grave consequences.
According to AP, Russia has also re-stated its demand for security guarantees from the U.S. and NATO including banning NATO from expanding further east and not allowing Ukraine to join the alliance.

In the end, the U.S. official said no conclusions were drawn from the talks.
Putin has not clarified whether he will invade or back down... and it is also unclear what Biden would be willing to offer Putin in exchange for defusing the crisis.
It remains to be seen whether the two sides can reach an agreement in Geneva next month, when working level talks will be held.
Lee Kyung-eun, Arirang News.

#Biden #Putin #Ukraine

2021-12-31, 12:00 (KST)

[joshuapaul]

It's not about Ukraine (with its ruined economy it's not an asset, but a liability). It's about Russia long-term security. Putin said that he didn’t need negotiations, he needed results. No more NATO expansion, no more NATO militarization of Eastern Europe, no more NATO attack systems in Eastern Europe, no more broken promises (not one inch eastwards etc.) He has a point, but US establishment doesn't understand language of reason and never keeps promises. The only thing that can bring US establishment to its senses is nuclear-tipped hypersonic missiles that can incinerate Washington DC in 5 minutes. US establishment (as a retired serviceman, I was part of it) is so corrupted by decades of crazy dollar printing, that it lost connection with reality (as if Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Yugoslavia debacles weren’t enough). Along with absolutely crazy domestic policies (the best example is that nobody really cares about curbing soaring inflation and ousting all Keynesian lunatics with their negative real interest rates from the Fed) this is driving America into the ground. American democracy with its checks and balances proved to be pretty brittle and was destroyed by bad money. Our country has plenty of banana republics on its periphery. Russians can easily organize a coup in any of these banana republics as Obama administration did in Ukraine. Then they will simply park their hypersonic Tzirkons in one of these. It will cost Russians far less than Ukraine costs to us. People who live in glass houses should not throw stones