U.S. and Russian senior officials' blow-offs could soften sanctions, deepen rift in rice if EU does not want to make concessions

Source : The Associ ated Press reports that the United States and Russia have shown willing ness to " li ft san ctions against Russia " as part of negoti ations to " end the Ukraine conflict , " potenti ally further stra ining relations between the United States and its European al lies .

On Tuesday (F ebru ary 18), local time , after the two Russian and US deleg ations concluded the Saudi talks , Foreign Minister La vr ov told the media that the two sides are willing to discuss the res umption of ge opoli tical issues , remove obsta cles to economic cooperation , and want to find concrete solutions in economic issues .

At the same time , U . S . Secretary of State Ru bio also made it clear that if the conflict with Russia is resol ved , the United States and Russia will cooper ate in the future in terms of " hist or ic economic and investment opportunities ".

Ru bio made it clear that the option of " li ft ing san ctions against Russia " was on the table .

Mr Ru bio said , " Se ver al san ctions measures were implement ed by this c lash .

In order to end all the conflic ts , all parties must make conces sions . "

Ru bio acknow led ged that he needed to sit at the negoti ating table , consider ing that EU countries also implement ed a number of san ctions against Russia .

Two weeks ago , the new US Att or ney General Pam Bon di dis band ed the Justice Department ' s " K lep to C apt ure " working group responsible for investigat ing the assets of Russian companies .

At the time , Boris Ch ito ff , the senior special envoy of the Krem lin , said the decision was " the first sign that everything was tur ning in a good direction . "

Since the Russian - Ukra inian conflict erup ted in February 202 2, the Biden administration has led the G 7 and the EU to imp ose multiple san ctions on Russia , free zing hundreds of billi ons of dollars in Russian foreign exchange reserves , restri cting energy ex ports , and bann ing entry of officials and business men at all levels .

The EU ' s economic expert , Don Br ov skis , said earlier this week that the EU would continue to imp ose san ctions even if the US lift ed san ctions . The EU is prepar ing a 16 th round of Russian - related san ctions and is expected to make a new decision next week on the third annivers ary of the Russian - Ukra inian conflict , it said .