The US and Russia held talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday that set the scene for a seismic shift in relations – and a potential turning point for the Ukraine war after three bloody years.
American negotiators emerged from the talks in Riyadh pushing back on criticism that they had sidelined Europe and Kyiv while promising warmer relations with Moscow. After two weeks of dramatic attacks on Nato, European democratic processes, and interventions behind Russian and right-wing causes on the continent, the US team led by Donald Trump’s secretary of state Marco Rubio returned to language closer resembling traditional diplomacy.
