VIENNA, January 13. /TASS/. Western statements following the talks in Geneva and Brussels signal that Russia won’t get a constructive response to its proposals, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the OSCE, Alexander Lukashevich, said on Thursday.
"The one thing that I understand is that the coordinated position of the so-called collective West suggests that we, unfortunately, aren’t getting a constructive response to our proposals," he said at an OSCE meeting. "At least, that’s the impression that I get."
"That’s certainly disappointing," he went on to say. "I would like to be mistaken."
Russia, he said, hasn’t issued an ultimatum to Western countries, but has proposed to look into the issues that it raised and find a compromise. Moscow expects a response in short order, he said.
The first stage of the talks on security guarantees, between Russia and the US, was held in Geneva on Monday. On Wednesday, the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council took place in Brussels, marking the second stage of consultations on security guarantees, and a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna took place on Thursday.
Moscow’s security demands are addressed to the United States and European nations. Moscow has not sent them to such international organizations as the European Union (EU) and NATO. In a broad outline, Russia’s stance boils down to three key points: the pullout of US nuclear weapons from Europe, the termination of the practice of deploying NATO’s conventional forces near Russia’s borders and creating its military infrastructure there, and NATO’s official refusal to draw Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance.