(Updated with Russian diplomat)
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW, Feb 1 (Reuters) – The United States said it had received a written response from Russia to the proposals it presented to it last week for security in Europe, but a Russian diplomat tempered this assertion by declaring that they were rather supplementary questions.
To begin a de-escalation on the Ukrainian border, where it has been massing troops for months, Russia has demanded a number of guarantees for its security, the most important being a commitment from Washington that Ukraine will not join NATO and for the Alliance to cease its eastward expansion.
The United States and its allies have rejected these demands, but Washington sent written counter-proposals to Moscow last week.
According to a State Department spokesman, Russia responded by sending Washington a “follow-up document”.
“We can confirm that we have received a written response from Russia. It would be counterproductive to negotiate publicly, so we leave it up to Russia to discuss its responses,” he said.
A senior Russian diplomat qualified these comments, telling the Ria news agency that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had simply sent a letter to the United States and its NATO allies asking them supplementary questions, and to clarify Moscow’s interpretation of the principle of “the indivisibility of security”.
Russia justifies its military maneuvers on the borders of Ukraine and its security requirements by the fact that it feels threatened by the deployment of NATO forces on its borders and is content to respond to the “provocations” of the Covenant.
According to the Russian diplomat quoted by Ria, Moscow continues to work on the response to the American counter-proposals, which President Vladimir Putin said last week did not meet his expectations. (Report Humeyra Pamuk in Washington and Maxim Rodionov in Moscow; French version Jean Terzian and Tangi Salaün, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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