Russian President Vladimir Putin in a conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron for the first time commented on the U.S. and NATO written responses to the draft agreements on "security guarantees" and complained that "Russia's fundamental concerns have not been taken into account," the UNN reports with reference to the Kremlin.
According to the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin said in a conversation that the Russian side would carefully study the written answers to the draft agreements on security guarantees received from the U.S. and NATO on January 26 and then decide on its next steps.
"At the same time, attention was drawn to the fact that the U.S. and NATO responses never took into account such fundamental concerns of Russia as preventing NATO expansion, refusal to deploy shock weapons systems near Russian borders, as well as the return of the bloc's military potential and infrastructure in Europe to the positions of 1997, when the Russia-NATO Founding Act was signed," the statement said.
Besides, the Kremlin reported that "a key question was also ignored: how the US and its allies intend to follow the principle of indivisibility of security fixed in the basic documents of OSCE and Russia-NATO, stipulating that no one should strengthen their security at the expense of security of other countries.
We note that after calling Russian leader Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron will talk to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, France Info writes.
"Emmanuel Macron will hold a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky at 19:00 on Friday, January 28," France Info writes, citing the Elysee Palace.
Earlier, the U.S. and NATO handed Russia a written response to the "security guarantees."
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he planned to discuss the U.S. response to Russia's "security guarantees" with Lavrov in the coming days.
