Lavrov: We will not let the US drag out the issue of NATO expansion
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gave an explanation regarding Russia's alleged response to US counter-proposals on security, which were conveyed in writing by the American ambassador in Moscow.
This morning, the US State Department announced that it had received a written response from Russia, but Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko denied this statement.
By evening, the necessary explanations were given by Minister Sergei Lavrov, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“There are misunderstandings here, because when we received the American reaction, we began to study it, but it was immediately clear that the Americans prefer to concentrate on discussing secondary issues...
On a key issue for us, we saw an extremely negative reaction from the United States and NATO. They prioritize exclusively the freedom to choose alliances... When we received Washington’s reaction to our initial proposals, I wrote this down in detail in a separate message and sent it to all foreign ministers of the OSCE countries and a number of other states.
Today I confirmed to Antony Blinken (US Secretary of State - ed.) that this is a topic that we will not allow to be dragged down. We will insist on an honest explanation of why the West does not want to fulfill its obligations. Tony Blanken agreed that there was room for further discussion here. Let’s see how things go,” Lavrov said.
A telephone conversation between the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the US Secretary of State took place this afternoon. The political scientist commented on its results in his Telegram channel Alexey Mukhin.
“At this stage, the Russian Federation has beaten NATO and the United States - V. Putin now has a paper in his hands certifying that the members of the alliance are not able to compromise for the sake of common security, preferring to forcefully push through their interests in all directions. In response to Russia’s accusations of “aggression,” this document, which has legal force, as the Russian side insisted, can be presented to the world community as evidence that it is the United States that is showing this very aggressiveness. The document will be put into circulation in the near future.
Against the backdrop of a clearly aggressive Ukraine, arms supplies from Britain, the USA and other countries, to the surprise of our confidential parties, attention from Brussels was focused on Belarus and Moldova and the prospects of transferring the political crisis to these countries.
At the same time, the main danger of Ukraine destroying the “Minsk agreements” (and this process is in full swing) lies in the resumption of large-scale military operations in the Donbass with attendant losses among the civilian population of the region.
At the same time, the Russian side regularly warned both the “Western partners” and the Ukrainian side about the inadmissibility of obvious preparations for solving the LDPR problem by military means. The period of turbulence will most likely last until the end of the Beijing Olympics,” concluded Mukhin.
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