Russia to weigh new security talks after written US, NATO responses
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Russia says it will base its decision on whether talks with the West would continue on the US and NATO's responses to Moscow's security demands.
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Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov
Russia has not seen a remarkable outcome of the Geneva security talks with the United States and NATO, Russian Ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said Saturday.
Moscow is waiting for the alliance and Washington's written responses to its security proposals to make up its mind on the necessity of holding further meetings with the western allies, he added.
"It must be admitted that the discussions held last week with the United States and NATO have not yet yielded any significant results," he told Newsweek in an interview issued Saturday.
He underscored that Russia was expecting written responses from Washington and Brussels on its draft agreements, saying Moscow would base its decision on the advisability of further joint work on them.
"We are also ready to discuss counter proposals," he concluded.
The Geneva talks between Brussels and Washington on the one hand and Moscow on the other come as an attempt at mending the torn relations between Russia and the West on security guarantees over Ukraine.
Russia is facing US-European allegations of a military buildup on its shared borders with Ukraine, which they claim amounts to 100,000 Russian troops.
It has been demanding a written commitment that Ukraine would never be able to join NATO and that the alliance would not place any military equipment in certain countries in the region surrounding Russia.
The Kremlin sees that it is best for Russian security that the alliance does not expand eastward and that Russia does not have any Western military activity in its vicinity.
