Putin blames West for tensions, demands security guarantees

MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian president connected Tuesday reiterated his request for guarantees from the U.S. and its allies that NATO volition not grow eastwards, blaming the West for “tensions that are gathering up successful Europe.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s code astatine a gathering with Russia’s apical subject brass came conscionable days after Moscow submitted draught information documents demanding that NATO contradict rank to Ukraine and different erstwhile Soviet countries and rotation backmost the alliance’s subject deployments successful Central and Eastern Europe.

The demands — contained successful a projected Russia-U.S. information pact and a information statement betwixt Moscow and NATO — were drafted amid soaring tensions implicit a Russian unit buildup adjacent Ukraine that has stoked fears of a imaginable invasion. Russia has denied it has plans to onslaught its neighbour but pressed for ineligible guarantees that would regularisation retired NATO enlargement and weapons deployment there.

Putin charged Tuesday that if U.S. and NATO rocket systems look successful Ukraine, it volition instrumentality those missiles lone minutes to scope Moscow.

“For us, it is the astir superior situation — a situation to our security,” helium said, adding that this is wherefore the Kremlin needs “long-term, legally binding guarantees” from the West, arsenic opposed to “verbal assurances, words and promises” that Moscow can’t trust.

Putin noted that NATO has expanded eastward since the precocious 1990s portion giving assurances that Russia’s worries were groundless.

“What is happening now, tensions that are gathering up successful Europe, is their (U.S. and NATO’s) responsibility each measurement of the way,” the Russian person said. “Russia has been forced to respond astatine each step. The concern kept worsening and worsening, deteriorating and deteriorating. And present we are today, successful a concern erstwhile we’re forced to resoluteness it somehow.”

Russia’s relations with the U.S. sank to post-Cold War lows aft it annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine successful 2014 and backed a separatist insurgency successful eastbound Ukraine that inactive controls territory there. Tensions reignited successful caller weeks aft Moscow massed tens of thousands of troops adjacent Ukraine’s border.

Putin has pressed the West for guarantees that NATO volition not grow to Ukraine oregon deploy its forces determination and raised the contented during a video telephone with U.S. President Joe Biden 2 weeks ago.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu charged Tuesday that much than 120 unit of U.S. backstage subject companies are presently operating successful 2 villages successful war-torn eastbound Ukraine, grooming Ukrainian troops and mounting up firing positions successful residential buildings and antithetic facilities.

Putin said the U.S. “should recognize we person obscurity to retreat.”

“What they are present trying to bash and program to bash astatine Ukraine’s territory, it’s not thousands of kilometers away, it’s happening close astatine the doorstep of our house,” helium said.

Putin added that Moscow hopes “constructive, meaningful talks with a disposable extremity effect — and wrong a definite clip framework — that would guarantee adjacent information for all.”

“Armed conflicts, bloodshed is not our choice, and we don’t privation specified developments. We privation to resoluteness issues by governmental and diplomatic means,” Putin said.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried, the apical U.S. diplomat for Europe, said astatine a briefing Tuesday that Washington is “prepared to sermon those proposals that Russia enactment connected the table.”

“There are immoderate things we’re prepared to enactment on, and we bash judge determination is merit successful having discussion,” Donfried told reporters aft a sojourn to Kyiv, Moscow and Brussels.

“There are different things successful those documents that the Russians cognize volition beryllium unacceptable,” she added, without specifying which ones.

Donfried said bilateral U.S.-Russia meetings are apt to hap successful January, and talks wrong NATO-Russia Council, arsenic good arsenic the Organization for Security and Cooperation successful Europe, are apt to spot question successful January arsenic well.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that helium intends to telephone a caller gathering of the NATO-Russia Council arsenic soon arsenic imaginable successful the New Year.

“Any dialog with Russia needs to beryllium based connected the halfway principles of European information and to code NATO’s concerns astir Russia’s actions. And it needs to instrumentality spot successful consultation with NATO’s European partners, including with Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said.

Associated Press writers Angela Charlton successful Paris and Lorne Cook successful Brussels contributed to this report.