Putin: West Failed To Satisfy Russia's Key Demands

Putin: West Failed to Satisfy Russia's Three Key Demands on Security Guarantees

Sputnik News

Moscow earlier received the West's written response to its proposals on regional security, which it forwarded in December 2021. These proposals contained Moscow's view on ending the existing tensions with NATO. They namely suggested that the alliance should drop the idea of accepting Ukraine in its ranks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has commented on the US' written response to Moscow's demands on security guarantees, stating that the West has basically ignored the Kremlin's proposals. The president elaborated that the US failed to satisfy three key proposals by Russia in the field of security.

"We did not see our three key demands adequately considered: stopping NATO's expansion, refusing to use strike weapons systems near Russian borders, and returning the bloc's military infrastructure in Europe to how it was in 1997," Putin said.

The president added that the West basically ignored Russian security proposals under the pretext of defending its freedom to pick its own allies. Putin stressed that this right was only half the principle of indivisible security.

The latter was first defined in the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 and stressed that it was important to maintain the security of all participating parties, which included both western nations and the USSR. The document noted that any party's insecurity might have negative consequences for the entire international community.

The western countries are trying to "forget" about the key principle of indivisible security and that is something Russia mentioned in its letter to US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

The minister noted, however, that the US gave a negative response to Moscow's demand to follow this principle. Lavrov highlighted that the agreements on indivisible security reached during the OSCE summit in 1999 and in 2010 included not only freedom of alliances that western nations defend so rigorously with regard to Ukraine's membership of NATO. Those agreements also forbade a nation to increase its own security at the expense of other countries' security.

Putin names possible reason for Russia-NATO war

RT

The possibility of Ukraine joining NATO poses a threat to European security, as it creates the grounds for a major conflict between Moscow and the military bloc, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Tuesday.

Ukraine’s official state doctrine includes an intention to restore Kiev’s sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula, which has been part of Russia since 2014, and, notably, by “military means,” he pointed out, during a joint press conference with the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban.

A potential NATO membership would see Ukraine “filled chock-full” with arms, with Kiev provided with access to state-of-the-art offensive weapons, Putin added.

Such developments could prompt Kiev to proceed with its plan to start a military “operation” in Crimea, the president warned, adding that Moscow would then be bound to respond, since it considers the peninsula, which was reabsorbed by Russia in a March 2014 referendum, its sovereign territory.

The president also said that Washington had so far ignored Russia’s “fundamental” security concerns. Moscow would very much like to avoid a conflict, Putin stressed. He added that it would only be possible if the interests of all sides, including Russia, are taken into account.