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US may push for progress of Minsk accords instead of giving security guarantees — expert

Dmitry Suslov said the US could try to "sell" this to Russia as an alternative to NATO’s commitment to halt expansion

MOSCOW, January 19. /TASS/. The US could try to push Ukraine to comply with the Minsk accords instead of meeting Russian demands for security guarantees, according to Dmitry Suslov, an expert at the Valdai Club.

That may have been the reason for US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Kiev, said Suslov, who is also head of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Research at the Higher School of Economics.

"I don’t rule out and even think it’s quite possible that Blinken in the course of this visit will put pressure on Kiev toward the implementation by Ukraine of the Minsk accords," he said in an interview with TASS. "That’s because the US now wants, instead of meeting the Russian demands for security guarantees, to intensify military cooperation with Russia, engagement in the issues of arms control and make some steps toward the implementation by Ukraine of the Minsk accords, hoping that if Ukraine does as little as start moving toward their implementation, then the situation will deescalate and Russia will be satisfied with that."

He said the US could try to "sell" this to Russia as an alternative to NATO’s commitment to halt expansion.

On December 17, 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a draft agreement on security guarantees between Russia and the United States and a draft agreement on ensuring the security of Russia and NATO member states. Consultations on the issue took place in Geneva on January 10, followed by a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels on January 12 and a session of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Permanent Council in Vienna on January 13.

Moscow said it’s seeking written responses by the West to the draft agreements. The Rssian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday confirmed that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov could meet with Blinked in Geneva on January 21.

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