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During his annual press conference, Vladimir Putin considered positive the American reactions to the Russian demands for a de-escalation of the Russo-Western crisis. Two negotiators have been appointed to start discussions in Geneva in January 2022. Cross portraits of the American Jake Sullivan and the Russian Yuri Ushakov.
« There must be no further movement of NATO towards the East. The ball is in their court », Launched Vladimir Poutine during his annual press conference. After weeks of belligerent speech from Russian officials and media, the Russian president ruled ” positives » the first American reactions to Russian demands for a de-escalation of the Russo-Western crisis around Ukraine, with the announcement of the start of negotiations in Geneva in January. Negotiations to be led by Jake Sullivan on the American side and Yuri Ushakov on the Russian side.
On the one hand, a national security adviser, on the other, a career diplomat. Jake Sullivan, 45, lawyer and jurist before becoming a senior civil servant, discovered the US administration in 2008 with the Democrats. It was that same year that Yuri Ushakov left Washington and the post of Russian Ambassador he had held since 1999. Now 74, the current diplomatic adviser to the Kremlin is a graduate of the prestigious State Institute of Moscow international relations. He has held this position with Vladimir Putin since 2012.
Past Yale and Oxford, Jake Sullivan was Deputy Chief of Staff to Hillary Clinton, then Secretary of State, and Director of the Policy Planning, the laboratory for new ideas in diplomacy and international relations. He will be his diplomatic adviser during the presidential election against Donald Trump in 2016. Previously, under the Obama presidency, he was the United States’ secret envoy to Iran on the nuclear issue.
The two men have already had several telephone exchanges during the month, in an attempt to defuse the crisis and avoid the risk of armed conflict, before starting their face-to-face negotiations in Geneva next month.
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