The US State Department announced in recent hours that the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken should meet next week the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The notice, that many have interpreted as not very concrete, has a strong symbolic meaning: a token of peace brought at a time when the Kremlin has expelled two US diplomats, while Washington raises the theory of the likely invasion of Ukraine by Moscow. Tomorrow the crisis will be on the table of the G7. 

Meanwhile, yesterday the Russian Foreign Ministry published the letter sent to the United States, containing Moscow's answers to the American proposals. In the missive Russia said it was "ready for dialogue" with the West, but stressed that Moscow's "red lines and strategic interests" on the security front "have been ignored". Therefore, the Kremlin "will have to react, including through technical and military measures, in the absence of a willingness of the United States to discuss guarantees to its security".

The announced meeting by Washington comes in close as a retort to Moscow. The umpteenth opening marks the beginning of a new series of diplomatic moves and meetings, promoted in these hours also by a phone call of the Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi to the US President Joe Biden. Tomorrow the foreign ministers of the G7 countries will meet in Germany to discuss the crisis.

On the same subject see also the article published by AVIONEWS.