• US President Biden has announced a difficult course against Russia.
• Now his government is imposing new restrictions on Moscow.
• However, Biden insists he does not want a “cycle of compounding” – and he continues to meet at a summit with Putin, the Kremlin chief.

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Despite new restrictions against Russia The american president wants Joe Biden He said tensions with Moscow would not escalate any more. “The US is not out to start a confrontation and conflict with Russia,” Biden said at the White House on Thursday. At the same time he warned: “If Russia continues to interfere in our democracy, I am ready to take further measures.” Biden said the restrictions now imposed could be stricter. But he decided to react “proportionately”.

Biden said that America And Russia has consistently been able to “find ways to manage tensions and prevent them from getting out of control. There are also areas in which Russia and the United States must and do work together.” The US president noted the extension of the “New Beginning” disarmament treaty with Russia at the beginning of his post.

New restrictions imposed

Hacker attacks and mediation in the US elections in retaliation for Russia had previously expelled ten Russian diplomats and imposed several new sanctions. The White House said Thursday that there are five employees of the Russian intelligence services among Washington mission diplomats. The Russian State Department called the US side’s actions “unacceptable” and announced a sharp backlash.

Biden was the head of the Kremlin Vladimir Putin In a phone call on Tuesday, he proposed a summit in a third country. On Thursday, the US president said his proposal should hold a meeting like this in Europe over the summer. It remains to be seen whether Putin will accept the invitation. The Kremlin stated that sanctions are not helpful for such summit schemes. However, in the end, the heads of state must decide for themselves whether they will meet or not.

Biden said that he had already announced the measures to Putin in a phone call. For Moscow The news was clearly not unexpected. However, the Russian side reacted angrily. Previous sanctions – due to conflicts in Ukraine and toxicity with Kremlin rival Aleje Navalny’s chemical warfare agent Novichok, among other things – have been causing problems for Russia.

Russia asked for evidence of the allegations

In Moscow, US Ambassador John Sullivan briefed Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov about punitive measures at a pre-convened meeting, the US diplomat announced. Sullivan called the conversation that evening “professional and respectful”. On the other hand, ministry spokeswoman Maria Sakharova claimed that it was a case of “summons” – and that it was for difficult and unfriendly conversations. “Such aggressive behavior will no doubt elicit a rebellion; the reaction to the sanctions will be unavoidable.”

The defendants should follow soon. However, Russia, which is much weaker financially than the United States, can hardly do anything to counter the sanctions. Russia had always rejected accusations of interfering in elections and hacking American infrastructure and demanding evidence. However, Biden had already announced a strict approach to Moscow during the election campaign. He again called on Russia to end the Ukraine conflict on Thursday.

The US sanctions are intended, among other things, to retaliate against a large-scale hacker attack on ministries, officials and companies in the United States, which US security officials suspect Russia is behind. The attackers gained access to the network using SolarWinds’ maintenance software, which was used in many locations, and did not last for months. The case, which became known in December, was a disgraceful blow to the US security services. (dpa / kad)

Teaserbuild: © Andrew Harnik / AP / dpa