Russia regrets U.S. rejection of public dialogue between Biden and Putin

Russia on Monday regretted the United States’ refusal to hold a public dialogue between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, at the initiative of the Russian president, after their verbal confrontation last week.

“This is another missed opportunity to break the stalemate in US-Russian relations that exists because of Washington,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Vladimir Putin had proposed to his American counterpart a public meeting by video conference to discuss their many differences.

According to Russian diplomacy, “the US side did not support the proposal” of Putin, which wanted to address “the bilateral problems that have accumulated and the question of strategic stability.”

The Russian president launched this idea on Thursday after an exchange of statements between the two, in which Biden began by calling Putin a “murderer” and he replied “who says so who is.”

Following Biden’s remarks, Moscow called its ambassador Anatoli Antonov in Washington for consultations.

The Kremlin also denounced the multiplication of sanctions against Russia on Monday after Washington adopted new sanctions last week.

“The determination to sanction of our adversaries, especially the United States, continues to grow,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov told a news conference.

Since arriving at the White House in January, Biden has shown great steadfastness toward the Kremlin, in contrast to his predecessor Donald Trump.