Russia does not want a war with Ukraine and that is why it had put forward proposals on security guarantees, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, following a meeting with German chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said Russia’s security proposals suggest signing an agreement with the US and NATO on ensuring equal security for everyone in Europe, including Russia.
According to him, the US and NATO ignored Russia’s three major concerns regarding NATO’s non-expansion eastward, return of the alliance’s military infrastructure to the state it was in 1997, and ban for the deployment of strike weapons near the country’s border, while agreeing to discuss some secondary issues, including military transparency and shorter- and intermediate-range missiles deployment.
“We intend and will strive to negotiate with our partners on the issues that we have raised in order to resolve them diplomatically,” he said.
Putin said he discussed the security guarantees proposals with Scholz, and told him that Russia cannot turn a blind eye to how the US and NATO “misinterpret” the principle of indivisible security.
He said that the US and NATO are trying to put into practice a “forced containment” against Russia, describing it as a threat to the country’s security.
Anadolu
