Page 10 - RusRPTJun21

2.0 Politics
2.1 Russia and US to kiss and make up? Blinking and Lavrov
meeting in Reykjavik
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and his counterpart US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met on the sidelines of the Arctic Council summit in the first face-to-face meeting between the new Biden administration and the Kremlin on May 19 in an attempt to find a more “stable” relationship.
Both sides have been talking tough as they try and set the terms of a relationship for the next four years and redefine rules of the game after the erratic Trump administration.
The Kremlin has been particularly aggressive. After a decade of preparation it appears that Russian President Vladimir Putin feels his fiscal fortress is ready and makes Russia largely impervious to sanctions. At the same time with Russia’s military modernisation that began in 2012 largely complete the Kremlin also feels it is strong enough to face down US forces both in its own backyard as well as in theatres further afield like Syria and Africa.
Lavrov made the new zero-tolerance for “economic damaging” sanctions imposed on Russia by the west explicitly clear in a new rules of the game speech in February and followed that up with a threat to break off diplomatic relations with the EU if more sanctions were imposed.
10 RUSSIA Country Report June 2021 www.intellinews.com