Washington ¨C Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin received an unusual request from an unlikely caller: His Russian counterpart wanted to talk.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Austin had spoken by phone with Russia¡¯s defense minister only five other times, almost always at the Pentagon¡¯s initiative and often in an effort to avoid miscalculations that could escalate the conflict.
In fact, Austin had reached out to Russia¡¯s new defense minister, Andrei Belousov, just a couple of weeks earlier, on June 25, in an effort to keep the ¡°lines of communication open,¡± the Pentagon said. It was the first phone call between the two men since Belousov, an economist, replaced Sergei Shoigu, Russia¡¯s long-running defense minister, in a Kremlin shake-up in May.
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