Russia Will Block NATO’s Expansion

According to the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, for the next diplomatic meeting with Washington, Moscow has as its objective to completely stop any signal of eastwards expansion of the NATO military bloc.

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Sergey Ryabkov said to news agency Interfax that Russia would have a clear agenda for negotiations, making clear that the country would refuse any attempt coming from U.S. diplomats on dissolving the settled agreements between the parties.

“Our leadership has repeatedly said we can no longer tolerate the situation that is developing in the immediate vicinity of our borders. We cannot tolerate NATO expansion. We will not just prevent it. We will put a stop to it,” stated Ryabkov.

The diplomatic talks to be held next January would mainly focus attention on releasing a treaties draft which includes a list of agreements Russia wants to get from the U.S. and NATO. The proposal provides for the end of Western cooperation with post-Soviet countries, stopping the eastwards expansions and the deployment of all weapons in the borders of Russia.

“We should not come up with some kind of dimensionless agenda when it is in our interest to include topics that have long been sorted out through other channels. We have to focus exclusively on the two draft documents that we have presented,” Ryabkov stressed.

“That in itself is a very difficult task, given the degree of disagreement between us and the U.S., and us and NATO, on these issues,” explained the Foreign Minister.

“We would conclude, in such a case, that the U.S. is not ready for a serious conversation. We call for negotiations, intensively and quickly. We believe that the issue is not just overdue. It is overripe,” he declared.