A “Dangling Carrot” for the Kremlin? Political analyst on possible lifting of sanctions against russia
19 February 12:15
OPINION
The United States is ready to lift anti-Russian sanctions as part of negotiations to end the Russian-Ukrainian war,
According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, after a meeting with the Americans in Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States expressed
“great interest in removing artificial barriers to the development of mutually beneficial economic cooperation.”
According to him, there was a “mutual desire to find concrete solutions” to economic issues.
The US State Department’s report on the talks in Riyadh emphasizes the potential for future cooperation between the US and Russia on the“historic economic and investment opportunities” that will arise after the conflict is resolved. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also made it clear that lifting sanctions is on the agenda.
“There are sanctions that have been imposed as a result of this conflict. In order to end any conflict, all sides have to make concessions,”
– Rubio said.
He now acknowledged that the European Union should join the negotiations, as the bloc’s countries have also imposed numerous sanctions on Russia.
The US Department of Justice this month shut down its KleptoCapture task force, which was responsible for “enforcing the wide-ranging sanctions, export restrictions, and economic countermeasures” imposed on Russia by the Biden administration. Senior Kremlin envoy Boris Titov called the decision “the first signal that things are changing for the better.”
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“Lifting sanctions is a carrot for the Kremlin”
“I understand that this is a dangling carrot for the Russian regime, and they discussed what sanctions would be lifted if there is a ceasefire and the war is over,”
– says the expert.
He believes that the lifting of sanctions is not a priority and definitely not a sole step of the American side.
“It also means that there should be steps from the Russian side that will confirm the intentions that were agreed upon earlier,”
– says the political scientist.
At the same time, he notes that the discussion between Russia and the United States is not going exactly as we would like.
“Of course, it is an unfortunate precedent that they started talking about lifting sanctions against Russia in relation to their steps on the diplomatic track in the paradigm of finding compromises, not in the paradigm of forcing Russia to comply with international law,”
– the expert notes.
However, the political scientist emphasizes that no catastrophe has occurred for Ukraine yet.
“It was absolutely predictable, and Trump used the same logic to communicate the possibility of negotiations with Russia all the time. So far, no one has lifted any sanctions, and they will be lifted only if Russia is constructive,”
– summarizes Oleg Sahakyan.
