MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. Russia will continue seeking answers from Western colleagues to its questions about security guarantees, while simultaneously developing a dialogue on other aspects of this topic, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
"We, developing a dialogue on some aspects that are of practical importance today, with our Western, primarily American colleagues. We will simultaneously seek their answers to the legitimate questions that we have raised," he said.
According to him, the approach to Moscow's priority security issues should remain on the agenda.
"What we started with our initiatives - when you repeatedly stressed, in particular during your last telephone conversations, at press conferences - is to ensure the indivisibility of security, including in terms of NATO non-expansion, non-deployment of strike weapons, and the return to the 1997 configuration," Lavrov said.
The Foreign Minister also noted that at a press conference following the talks with the French President in Moscow, the head of the Russian state pointed at the consequences of "pulling Ukraine into NATO."
"At a press conference with [French President] Emmanuel Macron, in my opinion, you very clearly showed the prospects for drawing Ukraine into NATO in modern conditions and considering the ambitions the Kiev leadership has," the Russian top diplomat said.
On January 26, the US and NATO handed over written responses to Russia on Moscow’s security guarantees that it was demanding from Washington and Brussels. The American side requested that the documents not be made public, although US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg enumerated their basic provisions. According to these statements, the West did not make concessions to Russia considered to be critical, but did indicate directions for further negotiations.