The Kremlin stated that “the American side did not give a constructive response to the basic elements” of the draft treaty.
On Thursday, February 17, Russia transmitted its written response to the US response regarding the so-called “security guarantees” that the Russian Federation has been demanding since December 2021. The main condition of the Russian ultimatum was the demand to abandon the expansion of NATO to the East and exclude the possibility of Ukraine and Georgia joining the Alliance.
As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov promised earlier, the Kremlin's response was made public by Russian propaganda outlets shortly after it was sent to Washington.
TSN.ua collected the main theses of this document, which has a volume of 11 pages.
In its response, the Russian side expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the White House did not provide “a constructive response to the basic elements of the draft treaty prepared by the Russian side with the United States on security guarantees.”
“We are talking about the rejection of the further expansion of NATO , the withdrawal of the “Bucharest formula” that “Ukraine and Georgia will become members of NATO”, and the rejection of the creation of military bases on the territory of states that were previously part of the USSR and are not members of the Alliance, including the use of their infrastructure for conducting any military activity, as well as the return of military capabilities, including strike and NATO infrastructure to the state of 1997 , when the Russia-NATO Founding Act was signed, ”the issues ignored by the American side were listed in Kremlin, calling these provisions important for the Russian Federation.
Moscow also believes that the US deliberately chose “convenient” topics from the list of Russian proposals, ignoring their “package nature.”
Russia expressed concern about the “military activity” of the United States and NATO “directly at Russian borders” and was indignant at the demands ” to withdraw troops from certain areas on Russian territory.”
“In the absence of the readiness of the American side to agree on strict, legally binding guarantees to ensure our security from the United States and its allies, Russia will be forced to respond, in particular, by implementing measures of a military-technical nature ,” the document says.
The Kremlin assured that they were not planning an invasion of Ukraine and denied accusations of escalation. In the situation with the violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine in 2014, contrary to the Russian obligations of the Budapest Memorandum, Moscow does not see its responsibility, calling the armed conflict in the Donbas “internal Ukrainian” and the occupation of Crimea “reunification with Russia.”
“The issue of Crimea's ownership is closed,” the Kremlin categorically asserts.
Moscow once again threatened “a direct armed conflict with Russia with all the ensuing consequences” if Ukraine is accepted into NATO and an attempt to return the occupied peninsula by force.
The Kremlin also called the steps necessary, according to the Russian side, to de-escalate the situation around Ukraine.
“This is forcing Kiev to comply with the “Package of Measures”, stopping the supply of weapons to Ukraine , withdrawing all Western advisers and instructors from there, refusing by NATO countries from any joint exercises with the Armed Forces of Ukraine and withdrawing all foreign weapons previously delivered to Kiev outside Ukrainian territory,” – said in Moscow.
Commenting on the US proposals on arms control and military exercises , the Kremlin confirmed its readiness for negotiations with some comments regarding, in particular, nuclear weapons.
“We would like to explain that our proposals are about solving the problem of the presence on the territory of some non-nuclear NATO states – violating the NPT – of US nuclear weapons that are capable of hitting targets on Russian territory. This would include the elimination of infrastructure for the rapid deployment of such weapons in Europe , as well as the termination of the NATO practice of training and exercises in the handling of these weapons, in which non-nuclear NATO member states are involved.Without the elimination of this irritant, discussion of the subject of non-strategic nuclear weapons is impossible, ”the document says.
At the same time, Moscow notes that these issues can only be considered in a “package” – together with the main demands, including a ban on NATO expansion to the East.
“In this regard, we would like to focus on the absence of a constructive reaction from Washington and Brussels to the most important elements of the Russian initiative that we have clearly identified. As for arms control issues, we consider them exclusively in the general context of a comprehensive, package approach to resolving the problem of security guarantees,” the Kremlin said.
Recall, Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 21, 2021 said that Moscow's demands on the United States and NATO are not an ultimatum.
