Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov, on the Abu Dhabi talks, says there is a foundation for further work

• US talks will continue.

Statements of this kind from Ryabkov, a long-standing channel for Russian diplomatic signalling, sit within a familiar pattern in US-Russia negotiation cycles: process affirmations ('foundation for further work', 'talks will continue') that keep the channel alive without conceding substance. The distinction that has historically mattered in these episodes is between continuity of process and movement on substance; the former has typically been read as a modest de-escalation signal at the margin, the latter is what has durably repriced the risk premia embedded in European energy, the rouble-proxies and gold. Markets have generally learned to discount Russian Foreign Ministry rhetoric pending confirmation from the US side, since unilateral characterisations of talks have on previous occasions diverged sharply from the counterpart readout. What is worth watching next is the sequencing: whether Washington issues its own statement, whether a date or venue for the next round is fixed, and whether any working-level agenda (arms control formats, Ukraine track, sanctions carve-outs) is specified, since a named calendar item has tended to carry more weight than verbal warmth. Absent substance, the established pattern is a brief fade of headline-driven moves in crude and the euro rather than a sustained repricing.