President Biden’s desire to force an increasingly hostile Russia is tempered by the immediate need to cooperate with Moscow for a variety of common interests.
Biden is looking for a five-year extension of the nuclear weapons treaty, known as the New START, which will expire in the first week of February and is seen by arms control experts as key to ensuring international security.
Meanwhile, intelligence officials are launching a series of reviews of what the Biden administration has called “reckless and contradictory actions,” which have continued since the Trump era.
These areas of concern include SolarWinds’ unprecedented attack on US federal agencies and private companies last year and the arrest this month of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny following his recovery from an alleged poisoning by Russian security services. Officials are also examining reports of the Kremlin rewarding members of US services in Afghanistan.
“I see that we can both operate in the mutual interest of our countries … and we make it clear to Russia that we are very concerned about their behavior,” President Biden told reporters on Monday.
Biden reiterated that he is waiting for the intelligence community to assess Moscow’s malicious activity before initiating a response, but said he “will not hesitate to raise these issues with the Russians.”
Evelyn Farkas, who served as Deputy Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia during the Obama administration, welcomed Biden’s approach, describing it as an effort to deal with Russia clearly and directly as opposed to former President Trump
Donald Trump Schumer: The indictment process will be quick, it doesn’t need many witnesses. The nurse will be selected by Biden as general surgeon: Schumer report calls for Biden to declare climate emergency MORE, who was criticized for his openness to the Russian president Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich PutinPutin labels dangerous, illegal pro-Navalny rallies Hill’s Morning – Biden report: Focus on vaccine, virus, travel Mexico’s president is positive for COVID-19 MORE. She said Biden is able to balance co-operation with confrontation in his relations with Putin.
“We can make progress with Russia if we deal directly and firmly, which the Trump administration has not tried to do,” Farkas said.
However, pressure is mounting for Biden to take swift action against Moscow, in particular for the arrest of Navalny and the completion of an assessment of the initial poisoning and how the internal security services of Putin and Russia, the FSB, fall.
“We urge your administration to conduct this investigation, to present your conclusions to Congress and to take a decision without delay,” the House’s bipartisan lawmakers wrote on Friday.
“If your investigation confirms that the Putin regime was behind this rampant attack – as the overwhelming evidence presented by our allies and independent researchers suggests – then it must be held accountable,” the lawmakers continued.
Over the weekend, the State Department called for Navalny’s “immediate and unconditional release” and rebuked Russia’s crackdown on radical protests in favor of the opposition leader. The State Department also demanded the release of more than 3,000 protesters who were arrested.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki
Jen PsakiOn The Money: Senate confirms Yellen as first woman Secretary of the Treasury | Biden says it is open to tighter revenue limits for stimulus checks The administration will seek to speed up Tubman’s bill. Press Secretary Biden playfully accepts the advice of his “Scandal” counterpart Overnight Health Care: Biden says anyone who wants a vaccine could get it by spring | Modern says the vaccine is effective in variants, but tests the booster shot California raises regional home order MORE told reporters Monday that assessing the intelligence community about a number of Russian activities will be a priority, but she did not provide a timeline or information on retaliatory actions that are being considered.
Congress-mandated authorities provide the administration with key tools to respond, including Sergei Magnitsky’s law, which allows sanctions against Russian officials engaged in human rights abuses against people working to expose corruption.
There is also the Law on Combating US Opponents through Sanctions, adopted following Russia’s intervention in the 2016 elections.
Biden’s candidate for Secretary of State, Anthony Blink
Antony BlinkenBiden’s “acquisition” of stability in the Middle East is crucial Hill’s Morning – Biden report: Focus on vaccine, virus, travel US carrier group enters South China Sea amid tensions between China and Taiwan. MORE, signaled during its confirmation hearing last week that the administration’s decision to take action against Russia will not be taken easily.
While Biden believes the US must impose “sustained costs and consequences” on Russia, Blinken said, every bad activity will “deserve a deep conversation” between the administration and Congress.
Former officials said the Biden administration could consider taking proportionate action in cyberspace to respond to the SolarWinds hack, although officials would likely be aware of the potential for escalation.
Farkas, a former Obama administration official, said Biden could also consider restricting the issuance of new sovereign debt to state-run entities in Russia.
“We need to be less risk averse than we have been in the past,” she said. “At the moment, the Putin regime is in a weak spot.”
The Biden administration will also have to navigate the detention in Moscow of three Americans, including Paul Whelan, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison last year on charges of espionage. Whelan claims he was framed, and US officials said the allegations were politically motivated.
Whelan’s brother, David Whelan, said the family had no communication with the Biden administration, but welcomed Blinken’s appointment as secretary of state, as well as Biden’s decision not to replace the US ambassador to Russia and the special envoy for business with hostages from the Trump Administration.
These decisions “give us confidence that Paul’s case will be dealt with by a government with deep expertise in Russia,” said David Whelan.
The other two detained Americans are Trevor Reed, a former US sailor who was sentenced in July to nine years in prison for assaulting a police officer – charges challenging the US – and investor Michael Calvey, who is under house arrest in Russia pending trial on charges of embezzlement that the United States has criticized.
The other congressional pressure Biden is facing is Russia’s construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which critics warn will give Moscow leverage over Europe.
Blinken, in his remarks to Congress, said Biden is committed to preventing the completion of the pipeline, but gives priority to coordination with European allies over the imposition of unilateral sanctions.
This means that Biden should persuade Germany to give up its support for the project at a time when it is also trying to repair the relationship between Washington and Berlin, after it fractured under Trump.
“In an ideal world, we will engage very quickly with our partners and allies in Europe, and I think we will try to persuade them to stop this,” Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, adding that sanctions remain the mass.
Biden spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday and “conveyed his desire to deepen relations between our countries,” according to the White House, which also said the two leaders had discussed Russia, Ukraine and the NATO alliance.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan
Jake SullivanBiden talks about NATO, climate change in the first presidential call with Frenchman Macron Biden must wait for the weekend for the election of the State Department at the White House: It will be “a short time” before Biden’s first trip abroad MORE has held calls with its counterparts in the United Kingdom, France and Germany and addressed common concerns about Russia, among other issues.
On Monday, Psaki would not say whether he expected Biden to speak with Putin, but said in general that more calls were planned with foreign leaders.
However, the US will seek Russia’s cooperation to address issues such as climate change and arms control.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday that Russian and American officials had begun talks on New START and expressed optimism about working with the Biden administration.
Angela Stent, a government professor at Georgetown University and an expert on Russia, said relations between the two countries were unlikely to heat up. Instead, she said, they will likely make a cold peace to gain strategic gains on both sides.
“I think the people of Biden have said from the beginning that they do not want to be reset with Russia, because it would be illusory and we should only deal with Russia in matters that are in our interest,” Stent said.
“On these issues, it is important to sit down with Russia, but there is no expectation that the relationship will warm.”