Putin and Biden give a boost in their first talk to the latest nuclear agreement between Russia and the United States

After four years of warm and attuned relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the first conversation between the Russian president and his new US counterpart, Joe Biden, was "frank and formal," according to the Kremlin.

The democrat has adopted a harsher tone with the Russian leader in his first phone call, this Monday, and stressed that Washington "strongly supports" the sovereignty of Ukraine and expressed his concern about the case of Russian opponent Alexei Navalni, the cyber attack massive to the heart of the US Administration and Moscow's electoral interference, the White House said.

With the latest Russia-US treaty nearing expiration, Putin and Biden, who have no history of sympathy, agreed to move forward to extend it despite friction.

None of those warnings or concerns are reflected in the statement on the conversation that the Kremlin released late yesterday.

And it is far from the one published by the White House.

Both leaders spoke to discuss the extension of the so-called New Start agreement, signed in 2010, which limits the number of strategic nuclear weapons of Russia and the United States to a maximum of 1,550 nuclear warheads and 700 ballistic systems in air, land or sea, and that expires February 5.

Donald Trump had avoided renewing it and demanded that China also sign the pact.

Beijing rejected the idea outright.

But Biden, already during the electoral race, had been in favor of maintaining what is today the last major arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow, after the departure of the US from the so-called INF, the US missile control treaty. short and medium range, key in the Cold War.

On Monday night, they exchanged diplomatic notes to extend the agreement for five years, the maximum possible.

Now, the renovation of the New Start seems to be almost done.

The lower house of Russia (the state Duma), in anticipation of an agreement being reached, approved a bill to extend it on Wednesday.

It must be ratified and if the parliamentary process does not start now, the New Start could legally expire for Russia even if the step was taken to extend it for another five years.

Russia "is ready" for new talks on arms control and "a new equation in security," said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov on Wednesday.

"Hopefully, we will be able to advance in this area despite the existing difficulties and the not very favorable context of our relations with Washington," he added.

Putin and Biden "expressed their satisfaction" with the diplomatic effort to proceed with the extension of the treaty, the Kremlin reported.

But although the agreement on the New Start is important, so was the tone of the American in that first call this Monday, with which the relationship between the two countries was officially inaugurated.

And also that the democrat mentioned the case of the opposition Alexei Navalni, arrested just after returning to Russia from Germany, where he recovered from the poisoning this summer in Siberia that almost cost him his life and after which the hand of the Russian state is perceived.

Biden, who knows Putin from his time as vice president in the Obama Administration and who has already had friction with the Russian leader, also spoke with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday about the challenges of "dealing with a more Russia assertive, ”NATO said in a statement

The EU has already imposed sanctions on several members of Putin's circle for the

Navalni case

and points out that the attack, with a nerve agent for military use invented in Soviet times, could not be carried out without the knowledge of the Kremlin and even less taking into account account that the Russian secret services followed the opponent.

The Democrat has another long list of sticking points with Moscow on the table.

And on Monday he pulled a few.

The sovereignty of Ukraine, after Russia annexed Crimea and the Donbas conflict.

Also the great cyberattack

to the heart of the US Administration by which US intelligence points to Russia.

Biden also spoke of Moscow's rewards to the Taliban for killing American soldiers in Afghanistan, according to Washington intelligence reports.

A case that Democrats accused Trump of not taking seriously.

The Kremlin does not expect a new restart of relations with the United States, but it does expect to continue to navigate the current.

This Monday, Putin told Biden that "the normalization of ties between Russia and the United States would serve the interests of both countries," says the Moscow statement, which highlights that the Russian leader stressed the "special responsibility" of both " to maintain security and stability in the world and throughout the world ”.