GENEVA (AFP) – Russia ruled out Sunday any concession at talks with the United States on soaring tensions over Ukraine as Moscow seeks a wide-ranging new security arrangement with the West.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian news agencies ahead of his talks in Geneva the Kremlin was also “disappointed” with signals coming from both Washington and Brussels, where NATO and the European Union are based.
“We are disappointed with the signals coming in the last few days from Washington but also from Brussels,” Ryabkov said. “We will not agree to any concession. That is completely excluded.”
The high-level discussions start a week of diplomacy in which Russia will meet with NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), with the U.S. trying to assure European allies they will not be sidelined.
The discussions between U.S. and Russian diplomats are to resume on Monday after a weeks-long standoff over Russian troop deployments near its border with Ukraine.
Western governments accuse Russia of planning “an invasion” of Ukraine. Moscow has rejected the allegations and insisted that the border deployments are defensive in nature.
The Russian government has repeatedly reiterated that the expansion of NATO military infrastructure in Ukraine is a red line for Moscow and that any future expansion must exclude Ukraine and other former Soviet countries.
Last month, the Russian government made demands on NATO and Ukraine about the future of their relationship, calling on the Western military alliance to deny Ukraine membership to NATO and to roll back its military deployments.
Moscow also proposed that the U.S. not establish any military bases in former Soviet states that are not part of NATO, nor develop a bilateral military alliance with them.
NATO, however, strongly rejected the proposals, stressing that the alliance will not abandon its basic principle of freedom for countries to join military blocs.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously warned that Moscow will act if the US-led NATO military alliance crosses its red lines in Ukraine.