The Kremlin seeks to promote security dialogue with the US and NATO
After the beating that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, subjected on Thursday, during his great annual press conference, to the Kiev authorities, to whom he once again accused of all the evils that had occurred and for having, now has made a de-escalation gesture with the withdrawal of 10,000 soldiers from the border area with Ukraine. In his recent media appearance, Putin announced that in early 2022 there will be talks in Geneva with Washington and NATO to discuss the security demands presented by Moscow as a condition for ending the current tensions around Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry published this Saturday on its website a statement reporting the withdrawal of some 10,000 soldiers who had been deployed in exercises along the border with Ukraine, in Crimea and in the Rostov-on-Don region, and the return to their barracks.
The note explains that this 10,000-strong contingent, an insignificant number considering that the Russian Army is estimated to have close to 200,000 troops in the immediate vicinity of Ukraine, carried out “combat training practices” for a month. . And he adds that “in order to guarantee the maintenance of the alert situation during the holidays in the military sites of the southern military district, guard units, reinforcements and forces will be assigned to face possible emergency situations.”
Moscow will still keep close to the border with the neighboring country about 200,000 soldiers
On Thursday, the Russian president said he observed a “positive” attitude on the part of Washington and Brussels to his demands on security. “Representatives have already been appointed by both parties,” he assured, in anticipation of the meetings scheduled in January with the United States and the Atlantic Alliance.
In the proposals on “security guarantees”, contained in two separate documents and presented on December 17, Moscow demands, among other things, that Ukraine not join NATO or any other state around it, limit the presence of the Western military bloc in the Eastern countries and prohibiting the placement of medium-range missiles and nuclear weapons in the Old Continent.
Military actions
And, last Tuesday, Putin brandished the threat to carry out actions of a “military and technical” nature if such security proposals are ignored. The following day, a spokesman for the US State Department stated that “Russia continues to escalate and has not stopped reinforcing its military presence” on the border.
For her part, the White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, reiterated that “any new aggression against Ukraine will have serious consequences (…) we strongly urge Russia to initiate a de-escalation by withdrawing its troops from the border with Ukraine.”
“Our goal is de-escalation through diplomacy. In the United States there is a willingness to take diplomatic channels in January through various channels, “added Psaki. In his words, “there is already a line of communication and diplomatic contact open and we hope that it will be maintained.”
Ukrainian leaders, however, do not see the tension easing with a simple withdrawal of 10,000 soldiers. In Kiev they estimate about 122,000 Russian soldiers deployed about 200 kilometers from the border, to which they add another 143,000 located at a distance of 400 kilometers.
But Putin believes that those fueling the tension are the Kiev authorities. «We are told: war, war, war. One has the impression that a third Ukraine military operation may be being prepared “to regain Donbass, the Kremlin chief said on Thursday. Later, on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zajárova, came to the fore, continuing to launch accusations. “Instead of ending the civil war, Kiev seems to be preparing to resolve the so-called Donbass problem by force,” he said. In connection with the truce agreed on Wednesday between Ukraine and the separatist rebels of the two rebel republics of Donbass, Donetsk and Lugansk. Zakharova expressed the wish that Kiev would “carry out what was agreed.”
Moscow accuses Kiev of not complying with the Minsk agreements and of having sent half of all its troops to Donbass. At the beginning of the month, Putin denounced the discrimination that, according to him, the population of the rebel territories suffers. “It is the first step towards genocide,” he warned. The top Russian leader believes that the one who encourages Kiev to regain Donbass by force is Washington, but has never explained who instigated Russia to bring Chechen separatists under control in the two wars in the 1990s and after the appointment Putin as prime minister in August 1999.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev told the RIA-Novosti news agency on Friday that it is precisely the United States that is guilty of the current confrontation with Russia. “The arrogance, the self-satisfaction went to their heads. They proclaimed themselves the winners of the Cold War, when we had together saved the world from confrontation “, estimates Gorbachev. In his opinion, the West wanted to “build a new empire and thus the idea of expanding NATO arose,” a point of view that largely coincides with Putin’s position on the matter, who on Thursday maintained that the West “blatantly deceived” Russia when, after the disintegration of the USSR, “NATO promised not to expand” to the east.
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