WASHINGTON, January 11. /TASS/. The Russian side does not understand the logic of the US Department of State, which calls upon Moscow to return its troops to their barracks, but at the same time refusing to discuss the number of US troops in Europe, the Russian Embassy in the United States said.
"We don't understand the logic of Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who states that Russia should ‘return its troops to barracks or tell US what exercises are ongoing and what their purpose is’ while US doesn't intend to discuss its troop levels in Europe with us," the embassy said in a Twitter post on Tuesday.
"It is our choice where and when to conduct military exercises on our national territory. We will continue to conduct them because it meets Russian security interests," it said.
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who headed the US delegation to Monday’s Russian-US talks in Geneva on security guarantees, told reporters that the withdrawal of Russian forces from areas adjacent to the Ukrainian border would be a proof that Russia had no plans of invading Ukraine.
The West and Kiev have recently been spreading allegations about Russia’s potential invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov castigated these claims as "empty and unfounded", serving as a ploy to escalate tensions, pointing out that Russia did not pose any threat whatsoever to anyone. However, Peskov did not rule out the possibility of provocations aimed at justifying such allegations and warned that attempts to use military force to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine would have serious consequences. According to him, Moscow is making every possible effort to help Kiev resolve the conflict in Donbass, remaining committed to the Normandy Four format and the Minsk Agreements.
The Russian-US consultations on security guarantees were held in Geneva on Monday. On January 12, a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council will be held in Brussels and the OSCE Permanent Council will gather for a meeting in Vienna on the following day. The central topic of these meetings will be Russia’s initiatives on security in the Euro-Atlantic region.