The Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoli Antonov, returned to Washington this Sunday after a three-month absence “ready to solve all the problems.”
« We have very serious problems; we are ready for constructive dialogue, for solving all problems, “Antonov said in statements collected by the Russian news agency Sputnik. Antonov has landed in New York, from where he will move to his post in Washington.
In response to US plans to impose new sanctions against Russia, Antonov has warned that ” through sanctions it is impossible to normalize and stabilize relations between the two countries .”
This same Sunday, the White House National Security Advisor , Jake Sullivan, had announced Washington’s intention to continue imposing sanctions on Russian companies related to the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
Antonov arrived in Moscow on March 21 , four days after the president of the United States, Joe Biden, answered affirmatively to the question of whether he believed that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is a murderer during an interview with ABC News. Biden threatened to make Putin pay for Moscow’s alleged interference in the November 2020 US presidential election.
Biden imposed different sanctions
On April 15, Biden imposed sanctions on 32 Russian entities and individuals and expelled 10 officials from the Russian diplomatic mission. With these measures, Washington responded to a cyber attack against the software company SolarWinds and interference in the 2020 presidential elections.
In response, Russia expelled 10 employees from the US legation in Moscow, imposed sanctions on eight senior US officials and recommended, in a case unprecedented in diplomatic practice, that Ambassador John Sullivan travel to Washington for consultations.
Both Antonov and Sullivan, along with other senior officials from both countries, participated in the expanded meeting that Putin and Biden held on June 16 in the Swiss city of Geneva. The return of the ambassadors to their posts is the most tangible result of this meeting, the first Russian-American summit since 2018.
