NATO[/B] can no longer "push Russia into secondary roles in European and international politics and must return to 1997 limits, said Sergei Ryabkov, Russia's deputy foreign minister and special negotiator at the US-Russian consultations in Geneva, which began at a preparatory level yesterday, Sunday, and will be formally held today.
"These are things of the past."
"Even a non-expert understands that demanding concessions from Russia, especially at a time when NATO has sought over all the last decades to 'push back' as we call our country and transfer it, if not in a vassal role, then certainly in a secondary role on the European and international political stage, and even to do so at the direct cost of our security, will no longer be possible.
"All this is in the past. And in the past it didn't do very well, but now it's just been put to an end," the Russian deputy minister told the Russian state news agency TASS.
"Therefore, NATO must 'pack up' and return to the limits of 1997," he added. Ryabkov, recalling that in May 1997 Russia and NATO signed the Fundamental Act in which they confirmed that they "do not treat each other as an adversary."
They also created a "mechanism for consultation, coordination and joint action", but in the meantime Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic joined the North Atlantic Alliance in 1999, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Estonia in 2004, Albania and Croatia in 2009, Montenegro in 2017 and North Macedonia in 2020.
Naive to expect progress
The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister assessed that it would be naive to expect progress on security guarantees, which Moscow has requested, in the upcoming Russia-US talks, "judging by the public position of the Western partners," while Russia believes that "the West should, on a unilateral basis, abandon the expansion of NATO and eliminate the military infrastructure that has been created."
"Western countries say they never promised not to expand. And we say that this was actually an integral part of the political package, which was discussed at the stage of the reunification of Germany, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from the countries of the former - from a military point of view - Warsaw Pact," the Russian senior diplomat said.
"So promises, political guarantees, some words mean nothing."
"So promises, political guarantees, some words mean nothing. Just now it was said that the US has no intention to deploy offensive weapons in Ukraine. Not today, but what about tomorrow or the day after tomorrow? Is the US ready to put it on paper and ratify it?" the Russian Deputy Minister asked.
According to Mr. Ryabkov, Russia's Western partners should get rid of illusions of a unipolar world or that they have the ability to dictate terms to Russia, which he called remnants of the thinking of the end of the Cold War era:
"Their own security will be affected."
"I understand that it is difficult for colleagues in the United States with their certainty in their everlasting right to shed illusions. This is always a certain political and psychological trauma.
"Hence the emotional outbursts, all kinds of exaggerations, threats, ultimatums, in general this hysterical behaviour. But they will need to get used to the new situation, to adapt and put the car in reverse a little, including literally. Otherwise their own security will be affected.
According to the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Western claims that Russia may provoke an incident, use military force against Ukraine, "is a great provocation and the statement is intended for ignorant people, for people who blindly believe American propaganda," and the recent crisis in Kazakhstan is not a topic of discussion at the Russian-American consultations in Geneva.
Source: Cyprus Times
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