Russia Considers Downgrading Relations With West, Kremlin Says

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia is considering a possible downgrade in its relations with the West because of the deeper involvement of the United States and its allies in the war in Ukraine, but no decision has yet been made, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

A deterioration in relations – or even their breakdown – would illustrate the seriousness of the confrontation between Russia and the West over Ukraine, after an escalation of war-related tensions in recent months.

Even during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the Cold War was considered to have come closest to nuclear war, Russia did not break off relations with the United States, although Moscow broke off relations with Israel over the 1967 Middle East war.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Izvestia newspaper that the ambassadors were doing a difficult but important job that helped maintain a functioning communication channel in troubled times.

But Ryabkov also said that a possible deterioration of ties with the West was under consideration.

Asked about the possibility of such a move, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that given the West’s current approach to Russia, it was one of several options being considered, although no decision had yet been made.

“The issue of lowering the level of diplomatic relations is a common practice for states facing hostile or unfriendly manifestations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“Due to the growing involvement of the West in the conflict in Ukraine, the Russian Federation cannot but consider various options for responding to hostile Western intervention in the Ukrainian crisis.”

President Vladimir Putin, who sent thousands of troops to Ukraine in 2022, frames the war as part of a broader struggle with the United States, which he says ignored Moscow’s interests after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and then plotted to divide Russia and seize its natural resources.

The West and Ukraine have portrayed the war as an attempt at imperial territorial grabs. Western leaders, who deny they want to destroy Russia, say that if Putin wins the war, autocracies around the world will be strengthened.

As Russia gains the upper hand in the largest land war in Europe since World War II, the Ukrainian crisis has intensified in recent months.

After the United States authorized Ukraine to strike Russia with some American weapons, the Kremlin sent signals that it considered this a serious escalation.

Putin has ordered exercises to practice deploying tactical nuclear weapons, suggested that Russia could station conventional missiles within striking range of the United States and its allies, and sealed a mutual defense pact with North Korea.

The United States and its European allies still have embassies in Russia, and Russia has embassies in Washington and European capitals, although diplomats on both sides say they are experiencing the most hostile conditions in decades.

“Moscow has given up on repairing its relations with the West,” said Geoffrey Roberts, a historian of Joseph Stalin and Soviet international relations at University College Cork.

“This would show that Putin thinks he can pave the way for a multipolar world while keeping the West at arm’s length,” he said. “But perhaps it is simply a gesture, a protest, a sign of frustration with the West and/or a concession to Russian hardliners who want to escalate the war in Ukraine.”

(Reporting from Faulconbridge, editing by Andrew Osborn and Andrew Heavens)