Last weekend, a senior Biden administration official looked at Russia’s military pressure on Ukraine and said the coming week of talks would offer President Vladimir Putin a choice between diplomacy and withering economic penalties
in Eastern Ukraine that would create a pretext for an invasion.
A military buildup along the Ukrainian border is further straining ties between Russia and the U.S., after clashes over cybercrime, expulsions of diplomats and a migrant crisis in Belarus. WSJ explains what is deepening the rift between Washington and Moscow. Photo Composite/Video: Michelle Inez Simon
Washington described this week’s discussions as a way to air differences and see what might be possible in future talks. But U.S. officials have voiced increasing mistrust of Moscow, and the troop buildup near Ukraine made it hard for NATO and the American side to entertain Russia’s ideas about the future of European security.
U.S. officials have pointed to Russia’s 2014 invasion and annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and fomenting of separatist war in eastern Ukraine, warning they are seeing the same signs of imminent conflict. Still, the difficulties in the talks this week and Russia’s tough approach on the ground against Ukraine could well be part of Moscow’s brass-knuckle negotiating tactics.
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