MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. Russia is preparing different versions of reaction to US-NATO response on guarantees of security, but is up to President Vladimir Putin to make the final decision, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview Friday.
"What we will do, should the West fail to hear the voice of reason, the president has said it already: should our attempts to agree to mutually acceptable principles of security in Europe fail to bear fruit, then we will take response measures," he said.
When asked a direct question what those measures could be, he said: "they can be wildly different. I will make my decisions based on the proposals, presented to me by our military. Of course, other agencies will also take part in preparation of these proposals. An inter-agency processing of the received response is going on," Lavrov said.
"The proposals on our response will be prepared for the president, and the president will make a decision. We are developing our line at this stage," the Minister added.
According to the top diplomat, the US response on guarantees of security look like a "paragon of diplomatic decency" compared to the similar document provided by NATO.
"The NATO response is so ideologized, it is so full of the alliance’s exclusiveness, its special mission, it’s special destiny, that I felt a little bit embarrassed for those who wrote it," Lavrov noted.
On December 17, Russian Foreign Ministry published draft agreements with the US and NATO on guarantees of security. The agreements imply, among other things, rejection of NATO’s further eastward expansion, including by rejection of Ukraine’s admission to the alliance, as well as restriction of deployment of serious offensive weapons, including nuclear ones. On January 26, the US and NATO provided their written responses to Moscow’s proposals on security. On Thursday, Lavrov disclosed that the US response does not contain a positive reaction to the main issue - the unacceptability of further NATO expansion.