MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. The US and NATO response to Moscow's proposals on security guarantees, which were published by El Pais, is constructive, but Russia is not ready for dialogue on the secondary security issues yet, Research Director of the Valdai International Discussion Club Fyodor Lukyanov told TASS on Wednesday.

"No, it won't [discuss these issues] yet," the Russian expert noted. "The [US] response, in my opinion, is absolutely expected and, overall, if one removes all the background, quite constructive," he stated.

Lukyanov said that the US and NATO focused on what, as they see it, could be negotiated. "Nevertheless, this is quite an important part. Yes, it is secondary, according to Moscow's view, however, it is still perceived, including by our country, as a significant thing that needs to be addressed, but only after some mutual understanding on political issues is reached," the expert noted.

"No mutual understanding on political issues has been reached so far, but it was not expected, since one should not expect NATO and the US to clean up its act after such a tough demand put forward by Russia," the expert went on to say. "Hence, it's no big deal. The next step has been taken, now the ball is on Russia's court."

At the same time, the expert emphasized that Russia had managed to encourage the US and NATO to engage in dialogue on some serious security issues in Europe. "All previous <…> constructive proposals were just ignored. Now, when we expressed them in a rather unusual form, it started working. The debates revived, including on some issues that the US were not even going to discuss two months ago. So, everything is going well, as expected," Lukyanov said.

Earlier, the Spanish newspaper revealed the supposed US and NATO responses to Russia's proposals on security guarantees. According to the document, the US and NATO are willing to address some European security issues but do not agree with Moscow's key demands, in particular, relating to the alliance's non-expansion. None of the parties has officially confirmed the authenticity of these documents so far.