NATO – Russia: what are Moscow’s key points in the negotiations
What angers Moscow in negotiations with NATO, and what makes the deal so complex? According to Putin, the West has overcome some fixed points that I should not have crossed, at the level of "Progressive invasion of Ukraine". President Vladimir Putin's spokesman says the situation poses an imminent threat to European security. In the end, the problem is always the same: the guarantees of neutrality for Russia in the countries on its borders.
In an interview aired Sunday, Dmitry Peskov cited Western promises, which, he noted, were never "legally binding" that NATO would not expand further east into the former Soviet bloc. In contrast to these promises, NATO has in recent years used its "open door policy" to absorb several former Warsaw Pact countries.
Moscow has drawn a red line in Ukraine, Peskov told the American broadcaster. "Firstly, there were only words, but over time we have witnessed the gradual invasion by NATO of Ukrainian territory, with its infrastructure, with its instructors, with supplies of defensive and offensive weapons, Ukrainian [army] teaching and so on, ”Peskov said.
Putin's longtime spokesperson went on to say that these moves have brought NATO directly "to the red line", creating a situation that poses a "real threat" to both Russia and the entire European "[security] architecture. ". Russia has a 3,000 km border with Ukraine, which was almost completely unfortified until the war in Ukraine in 2014.
These circumstances, which Moscow "could no longer tolerate," prompted Putin's team to come forward with a series of proposals to improve collective security, Peskov said. The proposals include guarantees that NATO will not expand eastward and that no former Soviet country bordering Russia is authorized to join the alliance. The United States, as well as NATO – which Peskov called "a weapon of confrontation" on Sunday – have already rejected these particular proposals. Unless a compromise is found, Peskov said tensions will only increase further.
Peskov also said during the interview that Moscow "will be ready to take counter-actions" if NATO deployments in Ukraine continue, although he stressed that this does not mean all-out military action.
Russia does not want NATO directly bordering on itself. He has already made an exception for the Baltic republics, a stone's throw from St. Petersburg, but he doesn't want to do it for Ukraine and Georgia. All the rest are just useless words. Practically, Russia wants a "Finlandization" of Kiev, a solution that the West does not want to guarantee up to now, without however being able to give complete NATO coverage to these countries. Without these guarantees, the situation will remain tense, even if an armed conflict remains, in my opinion, absolutely out of the question. Except there aren't any crazy people around.
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The article NATO – Russia: what are Moscow's key points in the negotiation comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/nato-russia-quali-sono-i-punti-fermi-di-mosca-nella-trattativa/ on Mon, 17 Jan 2022 09:33:33 +0000.