MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/. Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said that the "military colonization" of Ukrainian territory by NATO countries is underway which brings the alliance closer to Russian borders.
"There is active military colonization of Ukrainian territory, although the deployment of foreign military bases is prohibited under Ukraine’s constitution. It is called differently but actually there is active military colonization of Ukrainian territory with which Russia has the longest border. This, undoubtedly, causes our serious concern," she said at a press conference on the results of the autumn session.
"So far there are no real, specific steps to remove our justified concerns, those worries that we express. NATO continues to move to our borders, now right up to them," the speaker emphasized.
She reiterated that Russian President Vladimir Putin during a video summit with his US counterpart Joe Biden raised the issue of security guarantees, with the Russian side clearly formulating its position a short time afterward. The upper house speaker noted that the Russian side had already submitted documents to the US and Brussels, and talks on them would begin as early as January. "This time we won’t believe words, promises that we were repeatedly given, we will insist on legal guarantees ensuring the security of our country. Nothing else is possible. We won’t allow for this to be talked around, to get stalled in the negotiations while the advance of NATO and NATO’s infrastructure to our borders actively continues. We will be very persistent, we hope that we will be heard because Russia’s demands are absolutely justified and legitimate, nobody can refute them," she asserted.