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| US President Joe Biden (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. © AFP=News1 material photo |
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on the 18th (local time) that he would like to hold a video conference with US President Joe Biden on Friday or next Monday.
According to Reuters, President Putin appeared on Russian state TV that day and said, “We are ready to discuss not only bilateral relations with the United States, but other issues such as regional disputes.”
President Putin added that President Biden had instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prepare for the meeting the next day when it became known that he agreed to call himself a “killer” in an interview with ABC News on the 17th.
Meanwhile, White House spokesman Jen Saki said that day, “I do not regret that President Biden referred to President Putin as a murderer.”
The US State Department issued a statement in the name of Secretary of State Tony Blincoln on the same day, and also announced sanctions on’Nord Stream 2′, a natural gas pipeline connection project between Europe and Russia.
In a statement, the State Department said, “Nodestream 2 is a bad deal for Germany, Ukraine, and allies and partners in Central and Eastern Europe.” We must give up pipeline work immediately, as all agencies are at risk of US sanctions,” he warned again and again.
President Biden has expressed his position that “we will hold Russia accountable on the part of Ukraine” regarding Russia’s forcible annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014.