MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/. Moscow has explained its position and possible reaction to actions by NATO, which has for a long time continued to hit Russia’s sore spots. The alliance will now have to take a serious attitude to Russia’s proposals for security guarantees, Russia’s chief delegate at the Vienna negotiations on military security and arms control, Konstantin Gavrilov, said on the Rossiya-24 round-the-clock television news channel on Monday.
"They - I mean NATO - have continued to hit Russia’s sore spots, which they have been doing for a long time. The moment of truth has arrived. Now, that we have told them what we think on this score and how we should act, they will have to react seriously, and not dismiss everything offhand," Gavrilov said.
The North Atlantic Alliance is aware of the need for concrete political efforts for settling the question of providing security guarantees, he stressed
"Their reaction - from [NATO’s Secretary-General Jens] Stoltenberg and everybody else - is exaggerated. There must be a serious discussion and everybody in NATO is well aware that however strong the alliance may be, it is necessary to take concrete political action, because Russia’s military-technical and military response will be the sole alternative," the diplomat said.
On Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry released two drafts of documents concerning legal guarantees of security Russia would like the United States and NATO to provide. Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin called upon NATO to enter into meaningful negotiations with the aim of establishing reliable and long-term guarantees of Russia’s security. He stressed that Moscow needed legal guarantees, because earlier the Western counterparts had defaulted on the corresponding verbal commitments. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov notified US presidential national security advisor Jake Sullivan Moscow was ready to enter into negotiations at once in order to draft agreements on security guarantees. Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov was appointed to represent Russia at the consultations.