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Russia said Friday it was seeking legal, mandatory guarantees that NATO would give up all military activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine as part of a list of security demands it wants to negotiate with the West.
Moscow has for the first time provided details of the demands it says are essential to easing tensions in Europe and mitigating a crisis over Ukraine. Western countries have accused Russia of a possible attack, following the deployment of large numbers of military troops along the border, but Moscow has denied it is planning to do so.
Moscow’s demands contain elements, such as a Russian veto on Ukraine’s membership in NATO, a demand the West has already ruled out as a possibility.
Others would mean the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Europe and the withdrawal of NATO multinational battalions from Poland as well as from the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which were once under the former Soviet Union.
In Washington, a senior administration official said the United States was prepared to discuss the proposals, but added: “There are some things in them that the Russians know are unacceptable.”
The official said Washington would respond to Moscow next week with more concrete proposals on the format of any talks.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the United States has seen Russia’s proposals and that Washington is talking to its European allies and partners about the issue.
Russia on Thursday said it was ready to send a government negotiator “at any moment” to start talks with the United States on the guarantees it seeks.
But a White House spokeswoman said: “There will be no talks on European security without European allies and partners.”
NATO diplomats told the Reuters news agency that Russia could not have a veto over the further expansion of the alliance and that NATO had the right to decide on its military stance.
“Russia is not a member of NATO and does not decide on NATO-related issues,” said Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that Kiev had a “right, exclusive and sovereign” to orient its foreign policy and that only Ukraine and NATO could determine the relations between them, and the issue of membership.
Kiev has urged Moscow to re-engage in a peace process in eastern Ukraine, where some 15,000 people have been killed in a seven-year conflict between Ukrainian government troops and Russian-backed separatists.
Friday’s publication of the draft proposal proposed by Russia comes amid rising tensions over an increase in the number of Russian troops near Ukraine, which has raised fears of a possible Russian attack.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia’s relations with the United States and its NATO allies had reached a “dangerous point.” He noted that the alliance’s deployments and exercises near Russia are an “unacceptable” threat to its security.
Ukraine and the United States say Russia has deployed more than 90,000 troops near the border with Ukraine and may be ready to attack it, which Moscow has denied.
Ms. Psaki said the United States has been committed to Russia for decades and sees no reason why it should not continue to do so in order to ensure stability. But she reiterated that such a thing would be done in partnership with European allies.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, who held a two-hour virtual conversation on December 7, could hold talks again before the new year, but said that had not yet been decided.
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