MOSCOW — Russia on Friday spelled out its demands for sweeping new security guarantees from the United States and NATO, demanding pledges that would halt NATO eastward expansion and block U.S. military ties with former Soviet states.
The central tenets of Russia “sphere of influence” doctrine — including demands for an effective veto on other nations’ foreign and security policies — have repeatedly been dismissed as non-starters by NATO officials. A senior Biden administration official described some Russia’s demands as “unacceptable” to Washington and said Moscow “knows that.”
But the latest announcement by the Kremlin underscored its escalating confrontation with the West over Ukraine, which Russia views as part of its political orbit. It also raised worries among analysts that Moscow is making requests it knows the United States will not agree to create a pretext for possible military action against Ukraine once those demands are spurned.
Russia published two lists of demands — to Washington and NATO — the latter calling for the removal of all NATO military infrastructure installed in Eastern European countries after 1997, effectively seeking to rework the consequences of the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 that left Russia weakened for years.
The demands on NATO would also prevent the alliance carrying out any military activity outside its territory in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
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Source: Washington Post
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