We saw a statement of disagreements between Moscow and Washington: Alexey Chernyaev

Alexey Chernyaev, political scientist specializing in American studies and candidate of political sciences, commented to Alpha News on the talks between Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, and Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State.

According to the political scientist, the US is effectively demonstrating a departure from its previous agreements with Russia.

“The main point of these talks is as follows: Marco Rubio effectively officially announced that the US is abandoning attempts to fulfill the agreements reached a year ago in Anchorage. Sergey Lavrov, for his part, stressed that Russia does not believe America has abandoned the fulfillment of these agreements, and expects an official statement from Washington on this matter. In other words, we essentially saw a statement of disagreements between the parties and a demonstration that the Americans no longer consider the Anchorage agreements binding on themselves,” Chernyaev noted.

According to the expert, US setbacks on the Iranian front are pushing Trump to revise his policy on Ukraine.

“Certainly, the Iran factor has also played its role. It is precisely the setbacks in Iran that are seriously weakening Donald Trump’s position within the US and forcing him to make deals with people who offer him support in exchange for a more pro-Ukrainian stance. At one time, Senator Lindsey Graham mobilized the most radical circles of the American foreign policy community in support of Trump, while simultaneously advocating for increased support for Ukraine. In a certain sense, the current Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is his political disciple. Although he acts in a milder form, his position on this issue remains similar,” the political scientist said.

According to Chernyaev, the initiative for the talks came from Washington amid a reduction in direct contacts between the two countries.

“The fact that it was the American side that initiated the conversation is explained quite simply. Recently, direct contacts between Moscow and Washington have noticeably decreased. We see that after the NATO summit, a phone call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump did not take place, nor did the long-announced visit of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow. So when the Americans needed to signal their position amid reduced direct contacts between the parties, they used precisely this format of talks,” the expert concluded.