GENEVA, January 10. /TASS/. Russia sees a basis for reaching an agreement with the NATO group of countries on legally binding security guarantees, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said after Russia-US consultations on security guarantees on Monday.
"We are for continuing the dialogue, for this work to be carried out so that it is not curtailed and so that diplomacy keeps serving the cause of strengthening security and stability. Here there is a basis for accords," the senior Russian diplomat said.
"Those who say that Russia has assumed an expressly tough position are right, but those who claim that Russia has followed the way of advancing some ultimatums are absolutely wrong," Ryabkov said.
As the senior Russian diplomat explained, Russia offers other countries to come to terms and "indicates specifically" how Moscow sees it possible to achieve that.
"But we do not threaten anyone with consequences if this does not take place," the high-ranking Russian diplomat went on to say.
"However, we constantly hear from the US side and from the EU, if it comes to that, that Russia will have to pay some price, a high price, if it does or does not do something and what these people want or do not want. It is the latest experience rather than history, which shows that such a talk is in principle unacceptable for us. It will not yield the desired result for them," Ryabkov stressed.
Nothing has been left in the West’s foreign policy arsenal today, except for "sanctions and blackmail," the senior Russian diplomat went on to say.
"Even the skill of coming to terms is being lost. No problem, we will try to restore it. If necessary, we will be instilling this skill. I believe that we will succeed in that," Ryabkov said.