Russia has not entirely avoided contravening international laws and norms since the Geneva summit in mid-June, but its behavior has been an improvement compared to many periods in recent memory. United States President Joseph Biden impressed upon President Vladimir Putin, over the course of their three hours of talks in the Swiss lake-side city, that he expected Russia’s policies to be “stable and predictable”; and these two descriptors have been evoked many times since, most recently in the context of a surprise visit to Moscow of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William J. Burns last week (November 2–3) (Kommersant, November 3). In addition to a reported phone conversation with Putin, Burns—who is quite familiar with goings-on around Moscow, where he was an ambassador in 2005–2008—held face-to-face meetings with Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Russian Security Council and one of Putin’s oldest lieutenants, and Sergei Naryskin, the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) (Interfax, November 8; Izvestia, November 3). Official commentary on the results of these discussions has been scarce, but Washington generally has more reasons to be satisfied with the status of the uneasy relations than the Kremlin.
A Stability Check in US-Russian Relations (Pavel K. Baev, The Jamestown Foundation)
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