Russian Ambassador Antonov: NATO's efforts to develop former Soviet republics are unacceptable to Moscow
Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said that NATO's efforts aimed at the military development of the former Soviet republics are unacceptable to Moscow. He stated this in an interview with Newsweek magazine, excerpts from which were published on Facebook by the Russian diplomatic mission.
According to him, these actions of the alliance are fraught with the deployment of missile systems and other destabilizing systems that will directly threaten Russia. In this case, the risks of escalation and direct military clashes in the region and beyond will multiply, the diplomat noted. “Everything has its limits. We are, in fact, on the edge of the abyss,” the ambassador stressed.
In addition, Antonov said that in order to prevent such a development of events, Moscow had prepared draft agreements with the US and NATO on security guarantees. He also added that it was these documents that were discussed during the Russian-American talks, as well as at the platforms of the Russia-NATO Council and the OSCE.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that US officials promised to answer questions about security guarantees that were discussed at Russian-American talks in Geneva next week. “The Americans promised us to try, but we told them that they need to try very hard, to make their counter proposals next week,” the minister said.
On January 10, negotiations were held in Geneva on guarantees of security and strategic stability between the delegations of Russia and the United States. According to a State Department spokesman, in total, the discussion between the officials of the two countries lasted about 7.5 hours.
