Putin Halts Talks With White House Amid Sanctions Threats

Hagel Can't Get Russian DM on the Phone Either

Russian officials are apparently sick of hearing US threats of sanctions and demands to forcibly halt protests by ethnic Russians in neighboring Ukraine, and are cutting off high-level communications with the Obama Administration.

Reports out of Moscow say that President Putin has “shut down” all talks with President Obama, and say they are “not interested” in speaking to the mUS again under the current environment of threats and hostility.

Putin and Obama had been speaking regularly on the phone about Ukraine in March and early April, but Putin has not directly spoken to him since April 14, and the Kremlin says that they see no need to do any more talkng.

The Pentagon is reporting the same problem today, saying several calls to Moscow to try to arrange a talk between Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Russian DM Sergey Shoygu have been ignored.

Tellingly, the Pentagon spokesman reporting the failed phone call says Hagel “doesn’t have a new message to deliver to Moscow, but wants to reiterate the same one again.”

Moscow, it seems, is sick of hearing that same one.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.