Russian expert evaluates US President Biden’s European trip

US President Joe Biden plans to visit Europe from March 24 to discuss sanctions against Russia.

While the European Union (EU) has paused to impose additional sanctions on Russia to await the outcome of negotiations between Kiev and Moscow, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has advocated tougher measures.

According to the Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Russia), this could signal that the White House does not expect the conflict to end anytime soon and determines that NATO should intervene in this crisis in some way.

The US position to impose new sanctions is at odds with the outcome of a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers earlier this week. Accordingly, the EU has taken a decision to suspend the imposition of sanctions. The reason here is because there are optimistic forecasts about the ongoing Ukraine-Russia negotiations. According to Ukraine and Russia, dialogue still faces challenges, but neither Kiev nor Moscow declared an impasse in the negotiation process.

Meanwhile, Mr. Biden has publicly warned that Russia could escalate the situation, noting that Moscow could use cyberattacks against US companies or even use chemical weapons in Ukraine. .

Vladimir Vasiliev, a senior fellow at the Institute of American and Canadian Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that Biden was not in Europe to discuss tougher or expanded sanctions. them to Russia’s most sensitive energy sector. According to this expert, the US President wants to discuss the possibility of NATO’s involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“The US President’s trip to Europe to create alliances and discuss energy is not possible. Because this can be done remotely by online talks. However, if When it comes to military engagement, Biden’s face-to-face discussions are absolutely necessary,” the analyst argued.

According to this expert, such a move for President Biden would make sense in the context of the upcoming US midterm elections. Mr. Biden is currently being criticized, not only for allowing Russia to conduct a military campaign in Ukraine, but also for the approach Washington has chosen: to support Ukraine only with sanctions.