The back-and-forth between Washington and Moscow began after The Washington Post reported on Monday that Russia had “delivered a written response” to the U.S. written document, which U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan presented to Moscow last Wednesday.
The production of the U.S. written document followed a month of intense talks meant to resolve the Russia-Ukraine crisis, which culminated in Secretary of State Antony Blinken meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva.
Blinken left that session pledging to present Russia with a written record of Washington’s concerns about Moscow’s behavior and proposals to end the security crisis. He also said he expected to speak with Lavrov again “in the coming days.”
After the United States presented Russia with its written document last week, however, Russian officials criticized the response, which Lavrov said “contains no positive response on the main issue.”
U.S. officials have refused to outline the written response they provided to Moscow, but the United States had already ruled out Russia’s major requests: that NATO pull back its presence in the Baltics and Eastern Europe, and that Ukraine and Georgia be permanently barred from joining the military alliance.
Amid the latest confusion over the Russian counterproposal, Blinken and Lavrov are scheduled to speak on Tuesday, while Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to hold a news conference.
Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.