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During his annual press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Western countries to meet his demand for security guarantees that prevent NATO expansion into Ukraine and weapons and military deployment in Eastern Europe.
Vladimir Putin is willing to open a dialogue with the United States and the member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in exchange for them offering “security guarantees” to his country to prevent the entry of former nations. Soviet Union to the Organization. This, the Russian president said, will determine Moscow’s actions in the future.
The Kremlin has become increasingly insistent that Western countries and NATO are dangerously encroaching on Russia’s borders.
Last week, Moscow made several security demands to the West and assured that NATO should not admit new members to the organization. In addition, it prohibited the United States from establishing new bases in the former Soviet countries.
“We make it clear: there must be no further expansion of NATO to the east. What is not understood? Were we the ones deploying missiles near the borders of the United States? No. It is the United States that came with its missiles to the door of our house. Is it a scandalous demand to stop deploying missile systems near our home? ”Putin said this Thursday, December 23.
A request that has nothing “strange” for Russia
For Putin, his request for security guarantees is nothing “strange”, which is why he insisted that the United States and NATO have “bogged down” for decades the negotiations that will start in early 2022 in Geneva.
Putin assured that NATO has “fooled” Russia with five “waves of expansion” since the Cold War.
“’Not an inch to the east’ was what they told us in the 1990s. And what happened? We were blatantly misled. There were five waves of NATO expansion. And now, (missile) systems are popping up in Poland and Romania. That is what we are talking about. They must understand that we are not the ones who are threatening. We did not reach the borders of the United States or the United Kingdom. You came to us. And now they are telling us that Ukraine will also be in NATO, ”Putin declared.
After this statement, the Russian president asked himself: “How would the Americans react if we suddenly deployed our missiles on the border between Canada and the United States or on the border between Mexico and the United States? (…) Sometimes it seems that we live in different worlds ”, he added.
The response of the West and NATO: “”
While Putin assures that the West’s reaction to his proposals has so far been “positive,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg assured that the Alliance will not compromise the right of any country, including Ukraine, to decide on whether it wants to. enter the Organization or the principle of collective defense.
The United States also said it will not give the kind of guarantee on Ukraine that Russia wants. Furthermore, in early December, President Joe Biden warned Putin in a conference call that Russia will face “dire consequences” if it attacks Ukraine.
While Washington is willing to discuss the security proposals, it disagrees with some of them and insists that European allies should be part of the talks.
For its part, Moscow does not stop accusing the West of trying to make Ukraine anti-Russia by ‘brainwashing’ the population.
Since mid-November, tension has been building since Washington sounded the alarm over a massive stockpile of Russian troops in Ukraine and accused Putin of planning an invasion. In addition, he maintained that the Kremlin provides military support to pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, who seized two regions shortly after Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.
But Russia denies such claims and Putin has suggested that the conflict, which has claimed more than 13,000 lives, is “genocidal.”
With AP, Reuters and EFE
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