Allies puzzled, Biden relented in front of Putin: "Cut it at the root"

Allies puzzled, Biden relented in front of Putin: "Cut it at the root"

According to the "Financial Times", he signaled that he wanted meetings between NATO allies and Russia in order to discuss Vladimir Putin's complaints about that transatlantic security alliance.

A day after holding a bilateral meeting with the Russian leader via video link, U.S. President said that he hoped to announce high-level talks by Friday, which would "discuss the future of issues of concern to Russia and concerning NATO."

The talks aim to investigate "whether or not we can do something to reduce the temperature along the eastern front," Biden added.

The U.S. President said that he hoped that the participants would include not only Washington and Moscow, but also "at least four main allies in NATO". However, he declined to say which countries.

On Wednesday, Putin reiterated that he fears that Ukraine will join NATO, which, as he said, "will undoubtedly be accompanied by the deployment of military contingents, bases and weapons that threaten us."

"We hope that our concerns will be taken into account this time," the Russian President said.

Putin said the mention of the invasion was a "provocation", but did not explicitly rule out such military activity, stressing that Russia "has the right to protect its security in the medium and long term".

A senior NATO official from the east told the Financial Times that "under no circumstances should a debate on guarantees in the context of European security be allowed." Any talk of a compromise with Moscow "must be cut at the root immediately," an unnamed senior official said, adding that at least six European Union members share that view.

Although the high representative of the Biden administration declared the talks on the "red lines" useless earlier in the week, the Biden administration wants to follow the path in order to deter Putin from invading Ukraine. On Wednesday, Biden rejected the unilateral use of force in the conflict with Russia and said that there would be "severe consequences" if Putin intensified the conflict in Ukraine.