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Russia, West currently at stage of deep confrontation — Kremlin

NATO is reluctant to take Russia’s concerns regarding possible Ukraine’s entry into the alliance into account, Dmitry Peskov said

MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/. The countries of the collective West and Russia are currently at the stage of deep and sharp confrontation, with no prerequisites to withdrawal from this situation in place so far, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a commentary for the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program on Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"We are currently at the stage of deep confrontation, sharp confrontation, with even no prerequisites to withdrawal from this spiral seen so far," he said. The interview was recorded on July 11, while the video was posted by journalist Pavel Zarubin on his Telegram channel on Sunday.

NATO is reluctant to take Russia’s concerns regarding possible Ukraine’s entry into the alliance into account, Peskov said, adding that there are no prerequisites to talks so far as this is a critical point.

"Overall the alliance says: "Ukraine will be in NATO." Which means they say: "We will never take Russia’s key concern that was a milestone as the special military operation started, into consideration." What does it mean? That there are no prerequisites to talks so far. We have to work and reach goals set by our president," he said.

The North Atlantic alliance wants to remain Russia’s enemy, directly promoting it, Kremlin Spokesman said.

"[The results of the NATO summit] are alarming for us. The alliance demonstrates its intention to remain our enemy and it directly promotes it. The alliance would not opt for any flexibility regarding our main concern on Ukraine’s NATO membership. On the contrary, the alliance has made it clear that Ukraine will be in NATO," Peskov said.

The number of countries that would not like to give in to the West and want normal relations with all, is rising permanently, he said.

"The collective West continues putting an insane, unprecedented pressure on all those countries, though an increasing number of countries say: "We do not want to choose, we want to have relations of equal distance from both ends with you and with Russians." The main thing is that those should be mutually respectful and mutually beneficial [relations]," Peskov said.

Russia builds its relations particularly on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefit, the spokesman added. "We say that this is the pattern that we like most of all. This is what we are going to rely on," he said.

The Russian authorities will monitor the US presidential election closely, Peskov noted.

"They will hold the election, indeed. Let’s see who will eventually participate, who will win and whether he would be able to become the president if he wins. Currently nothing is guaranteed there as well. We will monitor very closely," he said.

Peskov did not suggest whether Washington’s policy could change after the vote. "Let Americans deal with their situation themselves. Each people choses its president itself. Each people is proud of its president. We are proud of ours. And let Americans deal with theirs," he noted.