Just two hours after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's emergency call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin made an equally urgent call to Moscow asking for talks with Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu.
The Russian Defense Ministry does not specify the agenda of these negotiations. "On February 12, 2022, telephone conversations were held between the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Sergey Shoigu, and the Secretary of Defense of the United States of America, Lloyd Austin", the ministry said in a statement.
It is only specified that Shoigu and Austin discussed "security issues of mutual interest."
