Media banned at US-Russia meeting in Minsk

(Baonghean.vn) - On August 21, in Minsk, Belarus, the meeting between US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker and the Russian President's assistant took place without any media agencies attending, the press secretary of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

US and Russian representatives met to discuss Ukraine on the sidelines of the 2017 ASEAN Summit. Photo: Ria Novosti

Washington initially proposed to meet in Vienna, Austria. Moscow proposed to hold the meeting in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. But the two sides eventually reached a compromise on the meeting in Minsk.

The meeting was aimed at discussing the relationship between Russia and Ukraine. Experts assessed that this meeting demonstrated the increasingly direct and deeper intervention of the US in Ukraine.

This meeting will also affect the "Normandy Four" format, including Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine, which was established to resolve the situation in Ukraine. According to the US side, under the supervision of this format, the situation in Ukraine has not been successful so far.

Meanwhile, if a new format only includes the US, Russia, and Ukraine, it will directly affect the unstable situation in the eastern region of the country. In other words, the upcoming meeting between the US special envoy to Russia will be a stepping stone for the US to replace Europe in resolving the situation in Ukraine, resolving the "tangle" in Eastern Europe bordering Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed hope for the US role in resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine: "Russia will be particularly interested in what ideas the US special envoy to Ukraine, Mr. Kurt Volker - a former US envoy to NATO - will have regarding the current situation in eastern Ukraine."

From Russia's perspective, Washington may pressure Ukraine to fulfill the political part of the Minsk Agreement./.

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(According to Ria Novosti)