Russian President Vladimir Putin said that in dialogue with the United States and its allies, Moscow would seek to work out "specific agreements that would rule out any further eastward NATO expansion" as well as the placement of weapons systems which Moscow sees as threatening in the immediate vicinity of Russian territory.
At the ceremony of presenting credentials to ambassadors of 20 countries, including NATO countries Slovakia, Spain and Italy, Putin reiterated the idea he expressed a few days ago of the need for the West to give Russia certain "security guarantees. At the same time, Putin mentioned that some countries "exacerbate tensions" near Russia's borders.
According to Putin, Russia needs "precisely legal, legal guarantees" because, as he put it, "Western colleagues have not fulfilled their respective verbal commitments," including that NATO would not expand eastward.
