MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/. Russia does not reveal its backup plan in case the West rejects the proposals on security guarantees, since this would weaken Moscow’s position and make it easier for opponents to deal with this issue, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told the Foreign Affairs magazine on Monday.
"I am not going to engage in speculation and would like to explain the logic of why we do not do this. First of all, when the issue is as serious as it has been for a long time and stated in our proposals, to announce a plan B means to weaken our position and make it easier for opponents to solve this problem," the Russian senior diplomat noted.
"In English there is an expression ‘poker face.’ There is even a good song by Lady Gaga relating to this. It is a stone face with not a single muscle flinching when an opponent on the other side of the card table makes a move," Ryabkov said.
The second idea, the senior diplomat, went on to say, is that "there should always be an option to choose." Ryabkov explained that the leadership, while making such crucial political decisions, "should always have a large choice so that the tools are different."
"At any point in time, the decision may be different. It depends on a combination of factors. I am not going to predict the final vector, but we have been instructed to find common ground on [the proposals] that we put on the table. That is the task we need to focus on, not on speculating what may happen," the deputy foreign minister said.
On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry released draft agreements on security guarantees on the part of the US and NATO. They were handed over to the US side on December 15 during a meeting in Moscow.