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Russia's foreign minister calls for 'reset 2.0' in relations with US
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov calls for ‘reset’ of relations with US
(about 3 hours later)
Moscow called on Sunday for a new “reset 2.0” in relations with Washington, saying the situation in Ukraine that had led to western sanctions against Russia was improving thanks to Kremlin peace initiatives.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has called for a “reset” with the United States, following statements by western leaders that their sanctions could be lifted if Russia works toward peace in Ukraine.
Washington and Brussels accuse Moscow of supporting a pro-Russia rebellion in east Ukraine and have imposed sanctions, which they have repeatedly tightened since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March.
In an interview with Russian Channel Five, Lavrov accused the west of setting off the Ukraine conflict in the pursuit of its own interests but also said Russia wanted to improve relations with the US.
The conflict has brought relations between Moscow and the west to their lowest level since the end of the cold war. President Barack Obama said last week that the sanctions could be lifted if Russia takes the path of peace and diplomacy.
Western countries have imposed sanctions against Russia’s financial, oil and defence sectors over Moscow’s reported support for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. Russia responded in August by banning food imports from Europe and North America.
In television interviews on Sunday Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who on Saturday made critical remarks about US, western and Nato attitudes to Russia in a speech at the United Nations in New York, said it was time to repeat the “reset”, a word Washington used to describe an attempt to mend ties early in Obama’s presidency.
“The main problem is that we’re absolutely interested in normalising these relations, but it wasn’t us who ruined them. And now we need what the Americans will probably call a ‘reset,’” Lavrov said. “Something else will probably be thought up, ‘reset number two’ or ‘reset 2.0.’”
But he also repeated criticisms of Nato’s “cold war mentality”, criticised Washington for excluding Russia’s ally Bashar al-Assad from its campaign against Islamic State fighters in Syria, and said Washington “can no longer act as the prosecutor, the judge, and the executioner in every part of the world”.
Lavrov was referring to President Barack Obama’s initiative in 2009 to improve ties between the former cold war enemies, which started off on the wrong foot when then secretary of state Hillary Clinton presented Lavrov with a badge labeled “reset” that was misspelled in Russian to read “overload”. Any progress on improving relations was soon again set back by the US Magnitsky Act banning Russian officials implicated in the death of the whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky and Moscow’s retaliatory ban on adoptions by American families.
“We are absolutely interested in bringing the ties to normal but it was not us who destroyed them. Now they require what the American would probably call a ‘reset’,” Lavrov said, according to a transcript of one interview on his ministry’s website.
Lavrov’s comments come amid talk that the western sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis could be softened or even lifted. Obama said last week US sanctions could be lifted if Russia “changes course” and stops its “aggression” in Ukraine, where it has been accused of providing men and weapons to rebels in the eastern part of the country.
“The current US administration is destroying today much of the cooperation structure that it created itself along with us. Most likely, something more will come up – a reset No2 or a reset 2.0,” he told Russia’s Channel 5 television.
European council president, Herman Van Rompuy, has also said the EU could review its sanctions as early as the end of September if the peace plan for eastern Ukraine continues to move forward.
Shortly after Obama took office in 2009, his then secretary of state Hilary Clinton presented Lavrov with a red “reset” button that was intended to signal a fresh start to relations that had been strained under Obama’s predecessor George W Bush. In a diplomatic gaffe much mocked at the time, the button bore a Russian label that said “overload” instead of “reset”; the two words are similar in Russian.
The EU has far more economic interests at stake in the stand-off with Russia than the United States does, and European countries remain dependent on Russian natural gas as winter approaches.
Lavrov said that thanks to “initiatives of the Russian president”, the situation was improving on the ground in Ukraine, where a ceasefire has been in place for several weeks. The 5 September truce is largely holding, though some fighting has continued in places including the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
A shaky ceasefire agreed upon in Minsk by representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the rebels has held in eastern Ukraine since 5 September, and the warring sides have gone ahead with the prisoner exchanges also foreseen in the Minsk peace plan. On Friday, Kiev said it had begun talks with Russian officials about marking out a 30-kilometre buffer zone between government and rebel forces, though Moscow denied its representatives had been involved.
“The ceasefire is taking shape, though of course not without problems. Monitoring mechanisms have been introduced, talks between Russia, the European Union and Ukraine have started, gas talks have restarted,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov praised the peace plan’s progress, saying President Vladimir Putin’s initiatives to negotiate an end to the conflict and discuss Ukraine’s economic relationship with the EU and Russia “have now essentially opened the path to dialogue”.
Western countries say thousands of Russian troops have fought in Ukraine and accuse Moscow of sending weapons, including a surface-to-air missile used to shoot down a Malaysian airliner over rebel-held territory in July. Moscow denies participating in the conflict or arming the rebels. Speaking to Russia’s state-funded international broadcaster, RT, Lavrov said “Nato still has the cold war mentality”, and said Moscow needed to modernise its conventional and nuclear arms, though he denied this would lead to “a new arms race”.
But the conciliatory language ended there as the seasoned diplomat placed the blame for the Ukraine crisis squarely on the West. Seated near a grandfather clock and a statuette in a reception room at the foreign ministry, Lavrov argued that the United States had been building a “power vertical” in international relations and said US sanctions were passed in the “hope of winning extra points from voters”.
Lavrov also repeated Russian criticism of the US-led air campaign against Islamic State fighters in Syria, accusing Washington of a “double standard” for refusing to cooperate with Syrian president Assad. Washington has repeatedly called for Assad’s dismissal and backed some of the rebels fighting to topple him since early 2011.
He also accused the European Union of trying to “unilaterally gain economic advantages” by signing its recent association agreement with Ukraine, hinting that it “set up” the protests that toppled president Viktor Yanukovych last winter to ensure the country didn’t join Russia’s customs union instead.
“There’s no room for petty grievances in politics,” Lavrov told RT. “I very much hope that the United States will finally … realise that they can no longer act as the prosecutor, the judge, and the executioner in every part of the world and that they need to cooperate to resolve issues.”
Lavrov said that despite the Western sanctions, Russia did not feel isolated on the world stage. Moscow has responded to the sanctions by banning most Western food imports.
“We feel no isolation. But, having said that, I want to emphasise in particular that we do not want to go to extremes and abandon the European and American directions in our foreign economic cooperation,” Lavrov told Channel 5.
“We have no desire to continue a sanctions war, trading blows,” Lavrov also said. “First of all, it is important that our partners understand the futility of ultimatums and threats.”
