The measures that Russia is taking in response to provocations by NATO are more than adequate. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed this opinion at the ceremony of presenting credentials to newly-arrived foreign ambassadors.
"By the way, the threat on our western borders is indeed growing, and we have repeatedly spoken about this. It is enough to see how close the military infrastructure of the North Atlantic Alliance has advanced to Russia's borders. This is more than serious for us," Putin stressed. "In this situation, we are taking adequate military and technical measures," he added.
Putin emphasized that Russia does not threaten anyone. "To accuse us of this - taking into account the real state of affairs, that is, as we say, to lay the blame at someone else's door - is at least irresponsible," he stressed.
Putin said that Russia is proposing to start substantive talks on achieving legal guarantees of NATO's non-expansion to the East.
"Our diplomacy now faces the priority task of seeking reliable and long-term security guarantees for Russia. In dialogue with the US and its allies, we will insist on working out specific agreements that would rule out any further NATO advances eastward and the deployment of weapons systems that threaten us in the immediate vicinity of Russian territory," Putin said. "We propose to start substantive negotiations in this regard," he said.
The Russian leader emphasized that Russia "needs precisely legal guarantees because Western colleagues have not fulfilled their respective verbal commitments." In particular, he noted, everyone knows about these verbal assurances that NATO would not expand eastward. "But it was done exactly the opposite. In fact, Russia's legitimate security concerns were ignored, and now they continue to be ignored further," Putin stressed.
The Russian president also expressed his concern over the behavior of countries that are exacerbating the situation near Russia's western borders. "We are concerned not only about the fact that the international community acts at random and cannot unite to solve really important problems, but also about the way some of our partners behave towards our country, towards Russia, who are trying to hold back our development in every way, exert sanctions pressure and, moreover, exacerbate tension near our borders," he said.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS