President Vladimir Putin said today that the West was not taking Russia’s warnings seriously enough not to cross its “red lines” and that Moscow needed serious security guarantees from the West.
In a lengthy speech to foreign policy officials in Moscow, Putin said talks on resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine were deadlocked and accused the West of using Belarus’ immigration crisis against Moscow’s ally Minsk. Russia intends to develop integration processes with Belarus.
He even said that “the Western partners are the ones who are exacerbating the situation (in southeastern Ukraine) by supplying Kiev with modern weapons, carrying out provocative exercises in the Black Sea… but also in other areas near our borders.”
Referring to NATO and its relations with Russia, the Russian president said that NATO – with which Moscow severed ties last month – had destroyed all dialogue mechanisms, and that it was proving to be confrontational. Russia. At the same time, he said that NATO is already giving signals that it wants to cooperate, although recently the alliance expelled Russian diplomats.
Speaking about Russia-EU relations, the Russian president said that the possibilities of cooperation with European countries are shrinking, as the European Union repulses Russia by imposing sanctions on it.
“Speaking of European countries, we are unfortunately forced to realize that the potential for cooperation is shrinking, although the European Union remains our main trading and economic partner,” Putin said.
Referring to the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, he said that the events taking place there confirm that the situation in the region has not calmed down and call for the participation of a Russian military peacekeeping force as a guarantee of stability in the region.
Referring to Russia-China relations, the Russian president said that various Western countries are seeking to wedge relations between Russia and China, but in response to these efforts, Moscow and Beijing will continue to expand their cooperation and coordinate initiatives. on the international stage.
Speaking of Russia’s relations with the United States, he said they were “unsatisfactory”, but said Moscow was open to dialogue and that the June summit in Geneva between Presidents Putin and Biden had opened up new possibilities for improving relationships.
“Yes, on many bilateral and international issues our interests, assessments and positions do differ, as everyone knows well, sometimes radically,” Putin said. “However, I want to say once again that we are open. in contacts and exchanges of views, in a constructive dialogue “.
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