Russia’s Foreign Ministry has summoned on Monday US ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, warning him that bilateral ties with Washington are on the verge of collapsing.
It said in a statement that the ministry has issued a démarche and handed a note of protest to Ambassador Sullivan.
The statement handed to Sullivan allegedly said that US President Joe Biden had made unacceptable statements about his Russian counterpart, apparently referring to Biden calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal for ordering the invasion of Ukraine.
Although he did not repeat the war criminal accusations, Biden also referred to Putin as a pure thug and a murderous dictator just a day later.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov promptly responded to the US president’s comments pointing out that being a leader of a country that has been bombing people all over the world for years and dropped nuclear bombs on the defeated Japanese cities, Biden has no right to accuse Putin of war crimes.
The Russian ministry statement also stressed that being unworthy of a statesman of such high rank, such statements from the US president put Russian-American relations on the verge of being severed.
The US Embassy in Moscow posted a statement to Twitter later in the day without mentioning the Russian Foreign Ministry’s note handed to Ambassador Sullivan.
The embassy post only stated that Ambassador John Sullivan demanded the Russian government to follow international law and basic human decency to allow consular access to all US citizen detainees in Russia, including those in pre-trial detention.
There are three US citizens that are currently being held by Russia, two of which – former US Marines Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed – are serving prison sentences
Russian authorities arrested last month US basketball star Brittney Griner as she was trying to board her flight to New York for possession of liquid with hashish oil, but no US official has so far been allowed access to Griner.
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