Talks between the United States and Russia aimed at resolving issues in their bilateral relationship will now take place in Moscow instead of Istanbul. The change was confirmed by Russia’s new ambassador to Washington, speaking to the state-run TASS news agency.
“The recovery of Russian-American relations is still a long way off,” Ambassador Alexander Darchiev told TASS, adding that the rapprochement with Moscow was being slowed by the so-called U.S. “deep state” and anti-Russian “hawks” in Congress.
“I can confirm that the next negotiations of the delegations will take place in the very near future in Moscow,” Darchiev was quoted as saying.
The war in Ukraine triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War. Senior diplomats in both Moscow and Washington said in 2024 that they could not recall relations ever being worse.
EU Sanctions
The European Commission proposed on Tuesday an 18th package of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, aimed at Moscow’s energy revenues, its banks and its military industry.
The new package proposes banning transactions with Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipelines, as well as banks that engage in sanctions circumvention.
“Russia’s goal is not peace. It is to impose the rule of might … strength is the only language that Russia will understand,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a press conference.
The Commission has also proposed lowering the Group of Seven nations (G7) price cap on Russian crude oil to $45 a barrel, from $60 a barrel, in a bid to cut Russia’s energy revenues.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the EU sanctions package, but said more detail was required and called for a lowering of the oil price cap to $30.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump casts the Ukraine conflict as a proxy war between the United States and Russia, and Trump has repeatedly warned of the risk of it escalating into a world war.
(With inputs from Reuters)
