Top Russian security official visits US, ‘plays mailman’ for Obama and Putin

The head of Russia’s National Security Council has arrived in the US on a two-day visit for top-level talks on key stumbling blocks in bilateral relations. He may also be carrying a response from President Putin to a letter President Obama sent in April.

Among the US officials Nikolay Patrushev will meet during his
trip is National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon, who brought
Obama’s letter during his visit to Moscow last month. The content
of the letter was never made public, but Russian officials said it
was very constructive and listed several proposals for building
cooperation between Washington and Moscow.

Last Friday, Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the Russian
president’s response to Obama’s proposals was not ready, but could
be by the time of Patrushev’s scheduled visit. 

Washington reportedly suggested drawing attention away from
frustrating issues in Russian-US relations, such as Russia’s human
rights record and the controversial Magnitsky Act, which the US
adopted in response to alleged human rights violations.

Instead, the two nations would focus on strategic issues such as
counter-terrorism cooperation, the conflict over NATO’s
anti-ballistic missile system in Europe, and nuclear disarmament.
It was indicated that several groundbreaking agreements may come
from the letter, likely including a legally binding agreement that
would make the ABM shield in Europe transparent to Russia, assuring
that its nuclear deterrence is not compromised.

“Ideas covering some of the directions have new elements,
which our country will study carefully and respond to
accordingly,” presidential aide Yury Ushakov said while
describing the letter.

Patrushev himself said that he had “no pessimism” about his trip
to the US.

Relations between Russia and the US have been marred by a number
of events lately, ranging from the conflict over the Magnitsky Act,
to Russia’s move to ban adoptions of Russian children by US
citizens, to the latest espionage scandal last week involving an
alleged CIA agent trying to recruit a Russian security agency
staffer.

As a result, relations between Moscow and Washington cooled
considerably, in sharp contrast to the high expectations following
the ‘reset’ in 2009. 

In his comments on the Boston Marathon bombing, President Putin
stressed that deteriorating ties between the US and Russia harmed
both countries. Tamerlan Tsarnayev, one of the alleged bombers, was
identified as possible terrorist by Russia’s FSB security agency,
but the warning it sent to the FBI did not prompt a full-scale
investigation. Many critics cite this as an example of inadequate
communication between the two nations on counter-terrorism.

This article originally appeared on : RT