‘It’s the beginning’: Kremlin plays it cool ahead of more U.S. talks, says Biden ‘messed things up badly’

After its initial enthusiasm for the thawing of frozen relations, the Kremlin now appears to be playing it cool over its revived rapprochement with the U.S., saying there is a long way to go to restore the “badly” damaged ties.

“The process that has begun to bring our bilateral relations out of a deep crisis is positive and we support it. But we are still at the beginning of the journey,” Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told CNBC on Monday.

“The previous Washington administration messed things up badly. There’s a lot of work to be done,” he added in Google-translated emailed comments.

Peskov reiterated that position Tuesday, telling reporters that both sides needed to “develop measures to restore and strengthen mutual trust.”

“We’ll have to take numerous small steps towards each other, which will help create and restore the atmosphere of trust. Much damage was done in the past four years and much was destroyed. It’s impossible to rebuild it all in an instant. We have a lot to do,” Peskov said, in comments reported by state news agency Tass.

It’s not unsurprising that the Kremlin might want to tread carefully when it comes to restoring ties with Washington, after spending the last few years flooding the information space at home and abroad with anti-U.S. rhetoric.

Tensions were heightened between Russia and Washington during Joe Biden’s four-year tenure at the White House, as Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine prompted a torrent of U.S.-led international sanctions on Moscow’s elite and economy and pitted Russia and its allies against the West.

President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has turned the tide in relations, however, as last week saw the first high-level sit-down talks between U.S. and Russian officials in years, looking to lay the groundwork for Ukraine peace talks. Ukraine and its European allies were left fuming by the U.S. and Russia rekindling diplomatic ties and forging ahead with talks without their input.

The discussions appeared to mollify Moscow, however, and prompt a shift in the mood music, with Russian President Vladimir Putin praising the American delegation and rating the talks “highly.”

Putin told Russian state media correspondent Pavel Zarubin late on Monday that the White House leader wanted a deal on Ukraine that was not necessarily beneficial to Russia.

“What does [Trump] want to do? It seems to me that he wants to improve the situation, the political situation in Ukraine, consolidate society, and create conditions for the survival of the Ukrainian state. And in general, this is not so much for the benefit of Russia. We still have a conflict with the current regime,” he said, in comments translated by NBC News.

Putin at the time praised Trump’s “rational approach to the current situation,” but said he has not substantially discussed a potential Ukraine peace deal with the president. 

Russian foreign ministry officials on Monday announced that a second round of Russia-U.S. talks will take place before the end of this week, possibly also in Saudi Arabia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov echoed these feelings, but again noted that the war would only end when there’s a deal that’s acceptable to Moscow.

“We are ready to negotiate with Ukraine, Europe, and any representatives who would like to help achieve peace in good faith, but we will stop fighting only when these negotiations produce a firm and sustainable result that suits the Russian Federation,” he said.

Russia and the U.S. appeared more clearly aligned on Monday, when the U.N. Security Council adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that took a more neutral position on the war.

The U.S. resolution, calling for “a swift end to the conflict and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and the Russian Federation,” was adopted by the Council with support from Russia and China.

The Council’s five permanent and non-permanent European member states failed to win support for their proposed amendments to the wording of the U.S. resolution to include a condemnation of Russia’s invasion, support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders and a “just, lasting and comprehensive peace.”

After its amendments were rejected, Denmark, France, Greece, Slovenia and the U.K. abstained from the vote, allowing the U.S.’ resolution to pass.

Earlier, the U.S. had sided with Russia in opposing a competing Ukrainian and European resolution, put before the wider UN General Assembly, that demanded Russia “completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine.” The U.S. abstained in a separate assembly vote on European-led amendments to its own resolution.

The U.S.’ acting envoy to the UN, Dorothy Shea, later applauded the adoption of the U.S.’ resolution by the UN Security Council, calling the action “the first this Council has taken in three years on Ukraine to firmly call for an end to the conflict.”

Russia’s Ambassador to the U.N. Vasily Nebenzya praised what he said were “the constructive shifts in the U.S. position on the Ukrainian conflict” following the vote, which had also seen Russian amendments to the U.S. resolution, making reference to the “root causes” of the conflict, fail to gain support in the wider UN General Assembly.

“The text adopted now is not ideal, but it is, in essence, the first attempt to adopt a constructive and future-oriented product of the Council, which speaks of the path to peace, and does not fan the flames of conflict,” he commented Monday, saying the adopted text was “only a starting point for further efforts to peacefully resolve the Ukrainian crisis.”