Russia warns it may toughen its stance on the West

The Kremlin may take further unspecified steps to ensure your safety if U.S and its allies continue to take provocative actions and ignore Moscow’s demand for guarantees that will prevent the OTAN incorporate Ukraine, a senior Russian diplomat warned on Saturday.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused Western allies of continually raising the limits on their relations with Russia and warned that Moscow could also up the ante if the West does not take Moscow’s demands seriously.

Ryabkov’s statement, during an interview with the Interfax news agency, came a day after Moscow released draft security documents, demanding that NATO deny the membership of Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and roll back the alliance military deployments in central and eastern Europe, bold ultimatums that will almost certainly be rejected by the United States and its allies.

The publication of the demands – contained in a proposed security treaty between Russia and the United States, as well as in a security agreement between Moscow and NATO – coincides with the increase in tensions due to the accumulation of Russian troops near Ukraine. , which has raised fears of an invasion.

Moscow denies that it has plans to attack its neighbor, but has demanded that the West give it guarantees that it will prevent the incorporation of Ukraine and other Russian neighbors into NATO, as well as the installation of alliance weapons in them. NATO has rejected those demands.

Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the demand for security guarantees in a video conference last week with US President Joe Biden. During the conversation, Biden expressed concern about the accumulation of Russian troops near Ukraine and warned that Russia would face “serious consequences” if Moscow attacked its neighbor.

The United States and its allies “have been pushing the limits of what is possible” with respect to Russia, Ryabkov told Interfax in response to a question about the Western threat of tough new sanctions against Moscow.

“But they do not consider that we will take care of our security and act in a similar way to NATO logic and also begin to push the limits of what is possible sooner or later,” Ryabkov added. “We will find all the necessary ways, means and solutions to guarantee our safety.”