Russian politician: US will not negotiate with Russia without NATO allies

Russia and the United States have disparate views on the Ukraine issue. Washington does not want to negotiate without NATO allies and a possible involvement of the Baltic states and Ukraine jeopardizes the success of the talks, said a Russian senator.

Washington’s decision to draw up a list of demands is a means of delaying negotiations on security guarantees with Russia. Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the Commission for Information Policy and Cooperation with the Media of the Russian Federation Council, said this in one Interview with the newspaper WSGLJAD. Earlier, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US would submit a list of concerns about Russia’s actions. Pushkov then said:

“The State Department spokesman emphasized above all that the US would not negotiate with Russia without allies and partners. In my opinion, this drastically limits the possibilities of an agreement, since the negotiations between the Polish-Baltic bloc and Ukraine are doomed to fail. “

The Russian politician is certain that with this stance the USA wants to show Russia that they agree with the approaches of Poland, the Baltic states and Ukraine. If this is the case, said Pushkov, the negotiations are hopeless. In this context, the politician recalled the recent statements by the Defense Ministers of Eastern and Northern Europe, which essentially amounted to the fact that Russia’s proposals on security guarantees were unacceptable.

However, according to Pushkov, Washington’s concerns are not comparable to Russia’s. Given the reservations listed by the US, he stated:

“If NATO’s advance east and US military maneuvers near our borders pose a direct threat to our security, we are not taking similar action near the US borders. As a result, their ‘concerns’ would not be about security It’s about the situation on the other side of the ocean – a few thousand miles from the US, where the United States is not threatened by anything. So it’s inherently an uneven listing. “

In his opinion, this gives Washington the opportunity to drag the negotiations out, along the lines of “you have asked us, we will make a counterclaim”. According to Pushkov’s assessment, the US will persist for a long time to come:

“US policy is essentially for Russia to quietly watch the US turn Ukraine into an anti-Russian military base.”

On Monday evening, US State Department spokesman Ned Price announced that the United States would submit a list of concerns about Russian actions. According to him, the White House saw no action by Russia that would alleviate US concerns. Price said:

“As you know, Russia has presented a list of concerns about the actions of the US and NATO. We intend, together with our European allies and partners, to express our concern about the actions of Russia, which we believe are detrimental to our common interests and values. “

At the same time, Price declared that the US was ready to cooperate diplomatically with Russia, but did not yet name any concrete plans for building bilateral relations. The U.S. State Department spokesman said:

“Russia has raised its concerns and we have ours. As soon as we have more detailed information on how we are going to discuss all of this, we will let you know.”

Last Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft treaties between Russia and the United States and NATO on security guarantees. The agreement provides for an end to further NATO expansion and not for Ukraine to join the alliance. Moscow calls on the alliance to cease all military activity outside its borders – in Ukraine and other areas in Eastern Europe, the Transcaucasus and Central Asia. NATO was asked not to deploy any additional weapons or new military contingents outside of the countries in which they had been stationed since May 1997 before the Eastern European countries joined NATO.

The proposals also contain provisions on mutual security guarantees in Europe and on the non-stationing of medium- and short-range missiles within reach of the other side. Moscow urges Washington to respond urgently to the proposals.

more on the subject – Ukrainian Defense Minister calls on NATO to deliver offensive weapons