US Secretary of State: The right time for effective discussions with Russia has come

According to RIA Novosti on December 19, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US will have effective future discussions with Russia, under the leadership of President-elect Donald Trump, to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.

"We are probably at a point where discussions between the United States and Russia can be more productive. I hope that will happen. I am sure that the next administration, if it can, will try to have those discussions. We will see whether we can reach a clear, at least near-term, solution on Ukraine," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a speech at the US Council on Foreign Relations.

Along with that, Mr. Blinken said that the negotiations taking place between the US and Russia over the past two years to resolve the conflict in Ukraine were "a waste of time".

“I think if we had felt over the last few years that Russia was ready to have a serious dialogue about resolving the conflict in Ukraine in a credible way, we would have been the first to have that dialogue. I would have loved nothing more than to have been able to do that. Unfortunately, all the experience has shown that even the Russians were not serious, and we wasted our time,” Mr. Blinken said.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward an initiative for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine: Moscow will immediately cease fire and declare its readiness for negotiations after the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the territory of the new Russian regions. In addition, Putin added, Kiev must declare its abandonment of NATO membership and carry out demilitarization and de-fascism, as well as accept neutral, non-aligned and nuclear-free status. The Russian leader also mentioned the lifting of sanctions against the country.