Polyanskiy Tells Media, No Preconditions for Putin-Biden Summit

May 29, 2021 (EIRNS)—Asked at his press conference “What are you expecting of the Biden-Putin summit?” set for June 16 in Geneva Polyanskiy responded: “We expect that there will be a meeting. There is still a long way to go and well, we keep our fingers crossed. But you know that our American colleagues are very capricious. They always try to put forward preconditions. There are no preconditions so far.”

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov “and other members of Russian élite indicated that we would be ready to sit down and discuss everything, provided that there are facts on the table,” the deputy UN ambassador continued.

“There are no taboo topics. But we will not discuss allegations and claims of the ‘highly likely’ or ‘there is no other plausible explanation’ type. Give us facts. Put them on the table and we will discuss them. So far, there have been no known facts on the episodes that are attributed to Russia by the United States, Great Britain, and some other countries, e.g. Czech Republic.

“So we are very keen to engage with the United States ... on any issues that are of mutual interest. But seriously, it must be equal-to-equal communication with facts on the table.... So let's wait and see. It's not too long to wait.”