MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/. The West won’t budge on NATO’s open doors policy, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

"Despite the increasing volume of publications in the media, including in the Western media, of the texts of secret documents that were discussed between Western colleagues and us in the early 90s, 90 and 91, despite the fact that even the West’s lack of intentions <...> to expand NATO eastward, despite the fact that Mr. [Jens] Stoltenberg, who now holds the post of Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance, simply rejects the obvious facts declassified by the British archive and published by [Der] Spiegel. Despite all this, they won’t budge on any weakening of this ‘open doors’ policy," he 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.

On February 17, the Russian foreign ministry released its response to the US’ proposals. The text was posted on the ministry’s website and handed over to US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan.