Russia assured on Tuesday that it was always “ready” for negotiations with the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is due to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Thursday, after Moscow’s recognition of the pro-Russian Ukrainian separatist regions.
“Even in the most difficult moments… we say: we are ready for the process of negotiations, that’s why our position has remained the same (…). We are always for the use of diplomacy,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in comments posted on YouTube.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday recognized the independence of the pro-Russian Ukrainian separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DNR and LNR), and ordered Russian troops to enter these territories, defying Westerners whose relations with Moscow is going through the worst crisis since the end of the Cold War due to the situation around Ukraine.
Shortly before this decision by the master of the Kremlin, immediately denounced by Kiev and the West, Mr. Lavrov announced that he would meet with Mr. Blinken on Thursday in Geneva to try to defuse the Russian-Western crisis.