MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. Russia continues analyzing the US reaction to security guarantees and information keeps coming in, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday.

"We are now focused on completing an analysis of the [US] reaction and information continues to arrive. We also perceive as a reaction the performance staged by Western countries and some of their sycophants within the OSCE framework in Vienna yesterday. The events demonstrated the OSCE’s total lack of professionalism for dealing with serious issues formulated in our documents and addressed to the US and NATO," the senior Russian diplomat said.

Instead of its claims to Russia, the West should give a serious reply to Moscow’s security demands, Ryabkov pointed out.

"Instead of substantially discussing problems in this sphere, we heard a flurry of moral teachings and, what’s more, sometimes formulated in quite a defiant manner. Let me remind all who are complicit in this act that it is not them who must advance any claims to Russia, it is Russia that demands that the collective West, primarily the United States as the orchestrator of these developments, respond seriously to our demands," the high-ranking Russian diplomat pointed out.

Moscow’s key demands include a halt to NATO’s further eastward expansion, the inadmissibility of deploying strike weapons near the Russian borders, and the North Atlantic alliance’s return to the 1997 boundaries, Ryabkov highlighted.

"These are the Russian side’s imperative demands. The attempts to talk them down, let them slide into the idle talk - something that the OSCE is engaged in - will fall through as we will not allow this," the senior Russian diplomat cautioned.

Russia believes that the United States must engage "in an in-depth and meaningful dialogue on this issue and must hold this dialogue behind closed doors if it is seriously concerned with the situation," Ryabkov said.

"There has been much publicity and megaphone diplomacy undertaken by the West lately. We have never indulged in that but lately, as you have noticed, we are focused on quiet diplomatic work. In general, it is the West and its like-minded allies that must make their choice and further developments depend on them," the deputy foreign minister stressed.

Russia’s security guarantee initiative

On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry published Russia’s two draft agreements on security guarantees, which Moscow expects from Washington and NATO. The agreements with the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization stipulate, among other things, the US-led bloc abandoning its designs on eastward expansion along with denying membership to Ukraine, in addition to restrictions on deploying serious offensive armaments, in particular, nuclear weapons. The sides have already held several rounds of consultations in various formats but have not announced any agreements reached yet.

On January 26, the United States and NATO handed over their written reply to Moscow’s proposals on security guarantees. The US side requested that the texts of these documents should not be published. However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg outlined their basic provisions. These statements suggest that the West has refused to make concessions fundamental for Moscow, but indicated areas for further negotiations.