MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. Moscow’s position that its proposals for the US and NATO to develop legally binding security guarantees should be viewed as a whole remains unchanged, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Ekho Moskvy (or Echo of Moscow) radio station on Monday.
"This is our initial position and this position remains unchanged,"she pointed out in response to a question. "This is the stance that we have and [that we] will maintain," Zakharova insisted.
According to her, Moscow moved to release the draft agreements that it had handed over to the US and NATO because in the past, Russia had run up against "concocted stories", "as well as changes in positions and other nuanced contexts."
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said earlier that Moscow’s draft agreements on security guarantees with the US and NATO weren’t a restaurant menu to choose from, but complemented each other and should be viewed as a whole.