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Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that “Western elites” are attempting to derail newly revived U.S.-Russia peace talks.
Some shit you should know before you read: Roughly two weeks ago, high-level US and Russian officials met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss restoring diplomatic ties and exploring a path to ending the war in Ukraine. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov led the talks, marking the most extensive engagement between the two nations since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The discussions focused on three key points: re-establishing the functionality of their respective embassies, creating a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks, and exploring broader economic and geopolitical cooperation. This led to concern among Ukrainian and EU countries as no representatives were present at the meeting.
What’s going on now: While speaking at a Federal Security Service board meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that “Western elites” are attempting to undermine the renewed diplomatic engagement between the US and Russia. He claimed that “some forces are determined to maintain instability in the world” and would try to “disrupt or compromise the dialogue that has begun” without providing specific evidence.
Putin acknowledged that not everyone is pleased with the US and Russia resuming talks, suggesting that certain actors in the West see ongoing conflict as beneficial to their interests. Despite these concerns, he described the initial discussions as “hopeful” and expressed optimism about potential progress in bilateral relations.
This comes as the United States and Russia hold another round of talks in Turkey, focused on restoring the normal functioning of their embassies after years of diplomatic tensions. Notably, neither country has disclosed which officials are participating, though reports indicate the talks involved officials from both the State Department and the Russian foreign ministry.
