What is this? Diplomacy with Russia?
Russia reports that the Russian Chief of General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, “held a phone call with the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles Q. Brown Jr.” last week.
The Biden administration has cut off all diplomatic ties with Russia so this is a first-in-a-long-time and long overdue.
Gerasimov said this about the call: “The US side was informed about the exercises in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea by the Russian Navy and Aerospace Forces groupings, involving live-fire drills and launches of high-precision missiles,” adding that this was ““to prevent possible incidents in connection with the presence of US and NATO ships near the area of the Russian exercise.”
The New York Times reported that the two generals had “talked about how to manage escalation concerns between the two countries.”
Journalist Tucker Carlson was in Russia this week to discuss de-escalation and interviewed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. That interview will be published on Friday.
