Dmitry Peskov told reporters that all the papers that the American ambassador brought to the Foreign Ministry yesterday are with the president. He’s already familiar with them.
NATO : “It will take some time to analyze them, let’s not rush to conclusions,” the Kremlin speaker said, promising that there were no plans to delay the answer. Peskov recalled that the United States asked not to publish its “reply papers”, but they themselves set them out in sufficient detail. Therefore, “maybe it’s really not worth (publishing) – everything is already known to everyone,” he said.
According to the press secretary of the head of state, “it cannot be said that our considerations were taken into account or that any willingness to take into account our concerns was demonstrated.” This is already very clear.
At the same time, Peskov refused to comment and evaluate certain provisions of the US response, in particular, the “positive moments” announced by the head of the State Department, Anthony Blinken.
“It takes time for some position to be formulated by our president,” Peskov said, noting that given the Americans’ rejection of Russia’s main concerns, “there are not many reasons for optimism.”
The Kremlin speaker noted that, nevertheless, the prospects for continuing the dialogue are always needed, the dialogue is important regardless of the differences in the views of its participants.
“The presidents will decide whether they need to talk, and if necessary, when,” Peskov said, answering the question of whether a new meeting between Putin and Biden is possible after US and NATO contacts.
The head of the State Department, Anthony Blinken, spoke about the content of the response to Russia’s demands the day before. According to him, Washington will not give up the principle of “open doors” of NATO and will not give guarantees that Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova will not join the alliance. Nevertheless, there are “positive points” in the document that can be worked on if Moscow is ready, he added.
The head of the State Department outlined areas where Washington sees an opportunity for progress in the negotiations: the arms control regime, including the issue of the deployment of missiles in Europe, as well as ways to increase transparency and stability.
Bloomberg, citing “a person familiar with the document who asked not to be identified,” reports that the official US response to the security guarantee proposals was three pages long. Basically, these are the previously announced positions of the American side and a few “proposals”. The latter include “increasing transparency in military exercises.” The United States also reaffirmed its readiness not to deploy a military contingent and medium-range missiles in Ukraine, demanding the same from Russia.
The Bloomberg source added that the United States was asked to increase “transparency in the area of missile defense and arms control.” Anthony Blinken officially announced that now the White House is waiting for Moscow’s response on the listed positions.
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