Putin proposes negotiations to NATO to prevent its expansion to Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to start negotiations to prevent the expansion of the Atlantic alliance towards eastern Europe, near Russia’s borders.

“In dialogue with the United States and its allies, we will insist on the achievement of concrete agreements that exclude a greater rapprochement of NATO towards the east and the deployment of weapons systems that threaten us near the territory of Russia”He said during the ceremony to receive the credentials of a score of ambassadors in the Kremlin.

“We propose in this regard to start substantial negotiations“, According to Putin, who stressed that Russia needs”legal guarantees“, Since western countries”they did not fulfill the verbal commitments acquired”.

“In particular, everyone knows the verbal promises that NATO was not going to expand to the east, but that the exact opposite was done. In short, legitimate Russian security concerns were ignored and now remain so, ”he stressed.

He was referring to the allied enlargement towards the countries that made up the former communist bloc in 1999 (Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic) and in 2004 (Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia).

“We do not demand any special conditions. We understand that any agreement must inevitably take into account both the interests of Russia and all the Euro-Atlantic countries. The calm and stable situation must be guaranteed for everyone, without exception”He added.

Putin denounced that some countries are trying to contain the development of Russia by resorting to sanctions and instigating tension on their borders.

“By the way, the threat on our western borders is increasing. One only has to look at how close to the Russian borders the military infrastructure of the Atlantic Alliance has approached. For us this is more than serious”, He highlighted.

For this reason, he explained, Moscow is adopting measures “military technicians“, Although he insisted that accusing Russia of threatening someone is,”at least irresponsible ”.

Putin already asked his Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, two weeks ago to negotiate with the West “Long-term security guarantees”.

Russia has been accused in recent weeks of concentrating more than 90,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders in order to invade the neighboring country during the winter.

This Wednesday, Lavrov accused Kiev of concentrating a large number of troops in the Donbas, the scene of a conflict since 2014.