Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly AntonovWASHINGTON, Feb 20NATO is expanding, and when Russia reduces the number of troops in Kaliningrad, no one will even thank you, said Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov. «You will see that we have withdrawn troops from various regions that are close to the Baltic and Eastern Europe. We have withdrawn a significant number from the Kaliningrad region, and no one even said thank you,» Antonov said in an interview with CBS. He stressed that NATO is expanding at the same time. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated the need for the United States and NATO to take Russia's security requirements seriously. At the end of 2021, Russia published draft treaties with the United States and agreements with NATO on security guarantees. Moscow, in particular, demands from its Western partners legal guarantees of refusing further eastward expansion of NATO, joining the Ukrainian bloc, and establishing military bases in post-Soviet countries. The proposals also contain a clause on the non-deployment of NATO strike weapons near the borders of Russia and the withdrawal of alliance forces in Eastern Europe to the positions of 1997. in case of war with Russia According to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, the document reflects US concerns about Russia's security actions and proposals on areas where countries can find common ground. According to him, there are «very positive things» in the written response, the United States is ready to advance in areas where cooperation with Russia is possible, ready to discuss common security, the response once again emphasizes that the United States will not compromise the «open door» principle of NATO. The Russian Foreign Ministry published a response to the US reaction to Russian security guarantees, in which, in particular, it was noted that the United States did not react to the proposal to bring nuclear weapons deployed outside its borders to the national territory and to refuse their further deployment outside the national territory. Posted by: Natalya Makarova
