Russia Presses US for ‘Urgent’ Response to Security Proposals

Russia on Monday called for an “urgent” response from the US and NATO on the security proposals Moscow put forward to the Western powers last week.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow hasn’t yet received a response from the US on the proposals. “I think they’ll try to turn this into a slow-moving process, but we need it to be urgent, because the situation is very difficult, it is acute, it tends to become more complicated,” he said.

While the US hasn’t responded directly to the proposals, Washington and Moscow are keeping communication lines open. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke by phone with an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

“Today, Jake Sullivan spoke with Yuriy Ushakov, Foreign Policy Advisor to President Vladimir Putin of Russia. He indicated US readiness to engage in diplomacy through multiple channels,” the White House said.

Russia seeks guarantees from the US that NATO won’t expand further eastward and wants the military alliance to rescind its promise that Ukraine will eventually become a member. The Russians are also asking for the US and NATO not to deploy military forces in areas Russia deems a threat to its territory, something Moscow would reciprocate.

The proposals also deal with the deployment of nuclear weapons and call for a moratorium on the deployment of intermediate-range missiles that were previously banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which the US withdrew from in 2019.