(PresidentialWire.com)- President Joe Biden held another call with Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, recently, and he delivered a harsh message to him.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki delivered a readout of the call to reporters, saying that Biden warned Putin that the United States would respond “decisively” if Russia were to invade Ukraine.
Psaki said the two world leaders spoke over the phone for almost an hour this week, during which Biden urged Putin to de-escalate the situation that’s happening along the Ukrainian border.
In referencing Russia’s 2014 invasion of the Crimean Peninsula, Psaki said the president “made clear that the United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine.”
Biden also “reiterated that substantial progress in these dialogues can occur only in an environment of de-escalation rather than escalation.”
The primary purpose behind the call, according to a senior official in the Biden administration, was for the White House to “set the tone and tenor” for the upcoming security negotiations that are going to take place soon in Switzerland.
On January 10, senior officials from both Russia and the United States will meet to discuss the security demands that Moscow has made recently. Also that week, officials with Russia will meet with officials from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Permanent Council as well as NATO.
In early December, Russia demanded that NATO and the United States deny membership to the alliance to Ukraine. They also asked that military deployments in the region be rolled back.
The rhetoric surrounding Ukraine has been stepped up in recent weeks. The United States and western countries have been on edge as Russia has sent more troops to its border with Ukraine.
In the meantime, Russia has denied that it has any intentions to formally invade Ukraine.
Russia wants all sides involved to not deploy any short- or intermediate missiles that are land based in the area.
This latest call with Putin was another step forward for Biden in his threats to the Russian president. The two had a call on December 7, during which Biden said the U.S. would place “high economic consequences” on Russia if the country were to decide to invade Ukraine.
The senior Biden administration official characterized the talks as “serious and substantive.” They also said both leaders agreed to the sequence of events and topics for the talks that are happening in early January.
The official commented on Biden and Putin by saying:
“They both discuss the importance of pragmatic, results-oriented diplomacy, and I think President Biden very much saw this call as seeking to set the conditions for that.”
The official also added that the United States would take the upcoming week to continue its “intensive period” of consulting with the government in Ukraine as well as its other main allies.
The senior official said that all of the American allies would be briefed on what happened on this latest call between Biden and Putin.
