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Russia tells US envoy that relations are ‘on the verge of breaking down’


Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a concert commemorating the 8th anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia March 18, 2022.

Alexander Vilf | Reuters

Russian Foreign Ministry speak it summoned US Ambassador John Sullivan on Monday in Moscow to formally protest the President Joe Biden’s decided to label the President of Russia last week Vladimir Putin a “war criminal.”

Sullivan was told that Biden’s accusation had put “Russian-American relations on the brink of a fracture,” according to to a statement from the State Department translated by NBC News.

Biden said on March 16 that he believes Putin “was a war criminal” for ordering Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. This is the first time Biden has publicly branded Putin with that phrase.

Biden’s comments to several hours Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top officials virtually met with the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who two weeks ago opened an investigation into possible Russian war crimes.

A spokesperson for the State Department did not immediately respond to Monday’s request for comment from CNBC.

But the US Embassy in Moscow tweeted that Sullivan had met with Russian diplomats to request consular access to US citizens detained in Russia, “including those in pre-trial detention”. trial.”

American WNBA star player Brittney Griner is currently in pre-trial detention outside Moscow on drug trafficking charges. The US Embassy did not mention Griner by name in its tweet.

Sullivan is the Trump-era appointee that the US President asked to stay at the start of Biden’s first term in 2021.

The diplomatic breakdown comes as Russia nears the one-month mark in its gratuitous invasion of Ukraine, launched on 24 February.

An initial Russian infantry advance has largely stalled outside the country’s major cities amid fierce Ukrainian resistance. This forced the Kremlin to shift tactics from a quick ground war to a war of attrition marked by shelling of residential areas in an attempt to wear down and demoralize. of the country.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki later said Biden was speaking from his heart about what he had seen on the news about the “barbaric acts of a brutal dictator.”

Psaki noted that there is a separate legal process to determine whether Putin violated international law and committed war crimes. That process is currently underway at the State Department, she said.

While the formal process has been slow, top officials in the Biden administration have publicly accused Putin of being a war criminal and that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine.

A day after Biden’s comments, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said: “I personally agree” with the president’s assessment of Putin.

“Deliberately targeting civilians is a war crime. After all the devastation of the past three weeks, I find it very difficult to conclude that the Russians are doing otherwise,” Blinken said.

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