Moscow considers talks with US and NATO “failed” ,? but there is no talk of military action, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said
Russia thinks it would be? Madness? to start a war on Ukraine, but does not rule out taking? countermeasures? to the NATO deployments if security negotiations fail and its concerns are left untreated, the Kremlin has told CNN.
Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s longtime spokesman, added that Russia was deeply concerned about a recent rise in tensions in Europe, in an interview aired on Sunday.
“We have too much tension at the border [with Ukraine]. We have too much tension in this part of Europe. It pulls [in] more problems automatically. It is extremely dangerous for our continent, he says told hosts the “Fareed Zakaria GPS” show.
According to Peskov, the only way forward for the United States and NATO is to finally address Russia’s concerns seriously, instead of brushing them off. “This is why we insist on getting a direct response,” he explained, adding that Moscow expected an “extremely specific” response to its “extremely specific proposals”.
Moscow does not issue an ultimatum, he claimed, adding that the Kremlin did not “talk about military action” and believes that a military scenario is “madness to do so”. However, he suggested that Moscow respond to continued NATO expansions in other ways.
Since the end of 2021, Ukraine and the United States have insisted that Russia has gathered military personnel near the Ukrainian border, and have claimed that this is evidence that they are preparing for an invasion. Moscow has repeatedly denied such plans.
In December, Russia issued a set of proposals to improve collective security, which included guarantees that NATO would not expand further east and a specific agreement that no post-Soviet state, including Ukraine, would be allowed to join it.
These demands were rejected by the United States and its allies during a week of high-level talks between officials from Russia, the United States, NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen even threatened that the bloc could absorb Finland and Sweden “overnight” if they were “provoked” to consider such a possibility by Moscow.
After the talks, which Peskov described as “failed”, the United States continued to claim that Russia was preparing false flag operations in Ukraine to trigger a full-scale conflict. The spokesman denied that anything similar took place. “You can see this is not happening,” he said. He brushed aside all such allegations and dismissed US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s allegations as “fake news”.
“He [Sullivan] promised to publish the evidence of these allegations within 24 hours [yesterday] … we are still waiting for that proof, “Peskov sa, adding that “until it is proven in some way … we will continue to assume that it is fake news.”
Russia is still striving for downsizing, worrying that Moscow and Washington are on what Peskov called “totally different tracks” – a situation he described as “worrying”.
(RT.com)
Source: sn.dk