New Delhi, June 6 -- By the time Anton Kobyakov stepped to the podium at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Saturday, the question he was answering had already been asked by the American side. Marco Rubio had said, publicly and without apparent discomfort, that Washington saw no point in continuing to mediate a conflict it could no longer shape. Kobyakov, Adviser to the Russian President and the forum's executive secretary, offered Moscow's read of why.

the US instigated the conflict, dragged everyone into it, and now they're pretending they can mediate."

The framing matters. Washington's stated position, as Rubio articulated it in late May, is that the US entered Ukraine diplomacy as the only party both Kyiv and Moscow ...