Putin Says Russia Doesn’t Want War, Ready to Continue Negotiations

13 thoughts on “Putin Says Russia Doesn’t Want War, Ready to Continue Negotiations”

1. The important point, as I mentioned over in McGovern’s thread, is that negotiations on these side issues will NOT be done independently of Russia’s 3 core interests. Lavrov urged Putin on this during their working meeting. Alexander Mercouris pointed this out in his video Tuesday. So the US can’t divert Russia from negotiations on the core demands by just talking about these side issues of military movements and the INF treaties.

   1. Good morning Richard! We’re the early birds that get the worm, lol!

      1. Nope. I’m about to go to bed at 4:30 AM. 🙂 See you this afternoon. The benefits of being retired.

         1. Ciao!

   2. A new INF treaty is very significant. But, so far US/NATO has only given the usual lip service. Good faith requires it reciprocate Russia’s troop withdrawal with, e.g., its fleet in the Black Sea.

2. It looks like the only language we understood was the threat of force by Russia.

3. This is a good start to a ‘new beginning’ for the US, Russia and NATO…Obviously, still a lot more ground to cover but if all sides indicate a willingness to give something, it bodes well and indeed I certainly hope so… I do encourage Russia to get it all in writing, clearly and concisely, with all the “i”s dotted and all of the “t”s crossed so there is no room for any misunderstandings…

   Attn.: Carolina:

   Mine are far nicer than yours!

4. From Sergei Lavrov’s answers to questions following his meeting with the Polish Foreign Minister:

   Now that we received replies from NATO and the US, we see that practically all ideas in this or other form, including the need to limit and refrain from deployment of medium- and shorter-range missiles have been this time reproduced as the initiatives of our partners. I am talking about this in detail because some of our well-wishers are beginning to gloat. They read what the Americans and NATO said. In their opinion, this means only one thing – that supposedly we will now talk on the terms dictated by US President Joseph Biden. I will leave aside the goals of these “analysts.” I will just say that the West replied eventually when it understood that we were serious about the need for radical changes in European security. It positively replied to the initiatives that it had rejected for a long time.

   So, is this the “end of the story”? No. Yesterday, I reported the situation to President of Russia Vladimir Putin. I emphasized that our proposals that he approved would be finally completed and sent to our American and NATO partners. They are based on the integrity of the Russian position. The issues we are listing now are important as practical steps towards de-escalation (to use a fashionable term). These steps will be effective if they rely on a durable legal foundation. This primarily applies to interpreting the principle of the indivisibility of security….[Section omitted mentioning the indivisibility of security.]

   We will continue our dialogue on clarifying the position of the West on the NATO members’ openness to negotiation on concretizing the principle of the indivisibility of security. We will conduct expert consultations on coordinating approaches on specific issues, be it medium- and shorter-range missiles or measures to reduce military risks. I think that our comprehensive efforts in all these areas will produce a good package result.

   In other words, as I said, there will be no separation of negotiations such that the West gets to ignore the main issues.

5. “Neither the US nor NATO have missiles in Ukraine. We do not — do not have plans to put them there as well,” he said.

   I sense Mr. Putin has doubts.

   1. The US lied to Russia about the Iran Deal and about the expansion of NATO. Why would Putin believe Biden?

      1. Because he’s an idiot

6. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions at a joint news conference with Foreign Minister of Brazil Carlos Franca following talks in the 2 + 2 format, Moscow, February 16, 2022
   https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1798743/

   Question: What specific proposals from the West, received in response to the Russian initiative on key security issues, does Moscow consider acceptable?

   Sergey Lavrov: I already talked about this at yesterday’s news conference. They are not really proposals from the West. They are Russia’s proposals that the West has received from us over the past two or three years, and has consistently rejected. Now that we have upped the ante on the security issues in Europe, the West has had to accept it and then present responses as its own initiatives. After the United States threw out the INF Treaty, President of Russia Vladimir Putin suggested, in messages to Western leaders, imposing a bilateral moratorium on developing and deploying land-based missiles of this class. There was no reply. This proposal was simply ignored. At about the same time, the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces presented a package of initiatives for consideration by the North Atlantic Alliance, including measures that would make exercises safer and more predictable, and that would reduce security risks during combat aircraft flights and warship maneuvers. We have repeatedly proposed restoring ties between Russia’s military and NATO. The North Atlantic Alliance discontinued ties unilaterally like most other forms of cooperation, in 2014. The West made these points in its response and expressed a willingness to hold what it called a serious dialogue on these issues. We consider this a positive step. We will be ready for such a dialogue but not at the expense of clearing up the principled issues of our position, which concern the need to stop NATO’s reckless eastward expansion and searching for other ways to ensure security in the Euro-Atlantic countries. President of Russia Vladimir Putin talked about this in detail in his recent news conferences.

7. Maybe Ukraine has the goods on Biden and his son from prior business ventures and consequently has the US President at their mercy.

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