Little reason for optimism after written response from U.S. makes no concessions to Russia, says Putin spokesman

Associated Press

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the response from the U.S. — and a similar one from NATO — leaves “little ground for optimism.”

Context: Blinken says U.S. has offered no concessions in written response to Russia’s Ukraine preconditions

But he added that “there always are prospects for continuing a dialogue, it’s in the interests of both us and the Americans.”

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that the U.S. response contains some elements that could lead to “the start of a serious talk on secondary issues.”

But Lavrov emphasized that “the document contains no positive response on the main issue,” the Russian demands for the nonexpansion of NATO and the nondeployment of weapons that Russia views as a threat.

Read on: Russia publishes ‘red line’ demands of U.S. and NATO amid heightened tension over Kremlin threat to Ukraine