Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov Friday in Geneva, Switzerland.
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Tensions continue to rise between Moscow and Washington. Russia can attack Ukraine “at any time”, advanced White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Tuesday, January 18, speaking of a “extremely dangerous situation”.
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A State Department official also warned of Russian troop movements in Belarus, Ukraine’s neighbor. “The fact that we are observing these movements (…) clearly gives the Russians a new approach, should they decide to take further military action against Ukraine”, she judged. The country is also worried about a constitutional reform project in Belarus that would allow the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons there.
“No option is excluded” American side to respond to a possible attack of this type, warned Jen Psaki. An exclusion of Russia from “Swift”, an international banking exchange system, which would paralyze transactions in this country, could thus be considered.
This increasingly alarmist tone on the part of the United States coincides with a new attempt at dialogue with Russia. American diplomacy has indeed confirmed that the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, will meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Friday in Geneva (Switzerland). Before that, he is expected in Kiev on Wednesday in an explosive context, Russia having deployed tens of thousands of soldiers on the Ukrainian border.