US and NATO responses fail to address Russia’s main concerns, says Foreign Minister Lavrov

“We present non-verbal promises, written documents signed by the leaders of all the OSCE countries, including the President of the United States (Istanbul Declaration of 1999, Astana Declaration of 2010), our Western partners have to get out from a more serious situation,” Lavrov explained. “This principle is clearly stated. It has two main interrelated approaches. First, the right of every state to freely choose military alliances is recognized. Second: the obligation of each state not to strengthen its security at the expense of the security of others.”

“In other words, the right to choose alliances is clearly conditioned by the need to take into account the security interests of any other OSCE state, including the Russian Federation,” Lavrov concluded.

The Russian Foreign Minister conceded the responses by the US and NATO could lead to serious discussions but only on secondary issues.

“There is a reaction there that allows us to count on the beginning of a serious conversation, but on secondary topics,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov echoed the same concerns on Thursday, saying on the surface, Russia’s prime concerns had not been addressed. He however refused to give an official definitive answer to the responses presented by the US and NATO.

Peskov told journalists during a conference call that Vladimir Putin had read the written responses from both the US and NATO, but added that Russia’s President and his government won’t be rushing into any conclusions.

“The President already read the written responses,” he said. “All the papers are with the President. It will take some time to analyze them, we will not rush to any conclusions.”

Russia’s official response would not take long but Peskov cautioned it wouldn’t happen straight away.

NATO sees ‘room for progress’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday the US’s written response to Russia “sets out a serious diplomatic path forward should Russia choose it.”

The US has repeatedly said Putin’s central demand, that the US and NATO commit to never admitting Ukraine to the alliance, is non-negotiable.

Blinken declined to detail specifics presented to Moscow in the written response, but reiterated the West’s public response to uphold NATO’s “open-door policy,” rejecting Moscow’s demands that NATO commit to never admitting Ukraine.

“There is no change. There will be no change,” Blinken said of US and NATO support for the alliance’s open-door policy.

“We make clear that there are core principles that we are committed to uphold and defend, including Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the right of states to choose their own security arrangements and alliances,” he added.

NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that the alliance’s written response was sent in “parallel with the United States.”

Although the positions of Moscow and the alliance are “far apart,” the NATO chief outlined three main areas where NATO sees “room for progress.” He asked that Moscow and NATO reopen their “respective offices in Moscow and in Brussels.”

It is unclear whether the latest diplomatic overture, which Moscow had sought, will change the course of talks between Russia and the West that have continued over the past several weeks.

Troop buildup rings alarm bells

Ukrainians — who have been at war for nearly eight years since Russia annexed Crimea and Russia-backed separatists took control of the eastern Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Luhansk — are desperate for reprieve from the drumbeats of war.

In an opinion article published on CNN, Olesia Markovic described how the Russian troop buildup at the border was ringing alarm bells for Ukrainian society.

“People admit the uncertainty and the lack of clear emergency instructions are draining their intellectual and emotional resources, making it hard to focus on current tasks and their ability to make long-term plans,” she writes.

On Thursday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Moscow, not Kyiv, must make concessions to defuse tensions in the region.

“The logic that Ukraine always has to make concessions in order to prevent Russia from being more aggressive… doesn’t work this way,” Kuleba told journalists during a visit to Copenhagen.

“I firmly believe that it’s important for Western countries to succeed in this particular crisis, for the reasons that I mentioned, because in recent years, Russia has been attacking not only Ukraine,” he said, pointing to Moscow using gas supplies, alleged cyberattacks and other tactics to hit the West.