Biden, Putin to speak on Tuesday amid escalating Ukraine tensions
Global News
The leaders have not spoken since July, when Biden demanded that Putin rein in Russia-based criminal hacking gangs launching ransomware attacks against the United States.
President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will speak in a video call Tuesday, the Kremlin said, as tensions between the United States and Russia escalate over a Russian troop buildup on the Ukrainian border that’s seen as a sign of a potential invasion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed plans on Saturday to Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti and said it will take place in the evening. “The presidents will decide themselves” how long the conversation will last, he said.
The White House did not immediately comment on the announcement.
The leaders have not spoken since July, when Biden demanded that Putin rein in Russia-based criminal hacking gangs launching ransomware attacks against the United States. Biden said the U.S. would take any necessary steps to protect critical infrastructure from any such attacks.
Russia is more adamant than ever that the U.S. guarantees that Ukraine will not be admitted to the NATO military alliance. But NATO’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, made clear this past week that Russia has no say in expansion plans by other countries or the alliance. Numerous former U.S. and NATO diplomats say any such Russian demand to Biden would be a nonstarter.
U.S. intelligence officials, meanwhile, have determined that Russia has massed about 70,000 troops near its border with Ukraine and has begun planning for a possible invasion as soon as early next year, according to a Biden administration official who was not authorized to discuss that finding publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The risks for Putin of going through with such an invasion would be enormous.
U.S. officials and former American diplomats say while the Russian president is clearly laying the groundwork for a possible invasion, Ukraine’s military is better armed and prepared today than in the past, and that sanctions threatened by the West would do serious damage to the Russian economy.
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