The United States proposed that an international conference be held to decide the fate of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus once and for all. This warranted a response from then-Soviet Ambassador to Turkey, Sergei Vinogradov, in the form of a memorandum sent to the Soviet capital on December 10, 1946, claiming that a conference held in such a climate as described by the United States was unacceptable in that the Soviet Union, in Vinogradov's opinion, was certain to be outvoted, he predicted that instead of a regime change, which was the steadfast and undying goal of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, the current infrastructure with which the straits were regulated would survive, albeit with some changes.[22]