Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said Russia will defy NATO over security commitments

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with German Foreign Minister Annallina Barbuk in Moscow, Russia, January 18, 2022. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Posted via Reuters

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MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday that Russia will ask NATO to clarify whether it intends to implement key security commitments, after Moscow said the alliance’s response to its demands was insufficient.

Russia forced the US-led defense coalition and the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to negotiate regional security by massing some 100,000 troops near Ukraine while denying its plans to invade. Read more

Russian President Putin said on Friday that the United States and NATO had not responded to Moscow’s main security demands in their standoff over Ukraine, but said he was ready to continue talks. Read more

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“Today, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we are sending a formal request to our colleagues in NATO and the OSCE, urging them to explain how they intend to implement their commitment not to strengthen their own security at the expense of the security of others. Lavrov said on state television.

“If they do not intend to do this, they should explain why. This will be a key question in determining our future proposals, which we will report to Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov said that Russia would seek not only promises from the West, but legally binding security guarantees, “that would guarantee security on the entire European continent, with full and equal consideration of Russia’s legitimate interests.”

Russia has demanded that NATO withdraw troops and weapons from Eastern Europe and prevent its neighbor Ukraine, the former Soviet state, from joining at all. Washington and its NATO allies reject this position, but say they are ready to discuss other issues such as arms control and confidence-building measures.

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(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov) Editing by Tom Palmforth and Philippa Fletcher

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