Russian media: Russia draws a "red line" for the West on the Ukraine issue

According to a January 14 report on the Russian TV today website, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at an annual press conference that what the West is doing near the Russian border, including Ukraine, is unacceptable to Moscow.

"We firmly cannot accept NATO's presence directly around our borders, especially given the approach pursued by the Ukrainian leadership, both former and current," he said. It's the real red line, and they know it. ”

Lavrov added: "The second point is that even if Ukraine does not join NATO, it may reach bilateral agreements with the United States, the United Kingdom and other Western countries to build military facilities in the country and set up military bases in the Sea of Azov." This is also unacceptable to us, because the deployment of offensive weapons that pose a threat to Russia in the territory of our neighboring country (in this case, Ukraine) is another red line. ”

The Russian foreign minister also objected to Ukrainian soldiers being trained by instructors from Western countries.

"I vividly remember the television footage from the Georgian war in August 2008," he said. At the time, instructors in U.S. officer uniforms — both white and black — were on hand instructing how to reload anti-tanks and other weapons. I don't want this scene to happen again in Ukraine. Because this would mean crossing all possible red lines. ”

Meanwhile, an article published on the Yahoo News website revealed that the CIA was in charge of a secret program to step up training of Ukraine's elite special forces and intelligence personnel. Former employees of the U.S. intelligence and state security agencies revealed that ukrainian soldiers have been training Ukrainian soldiers at facilities in the southern United States since 2015.

A former CIA employee said that under the plan, Ukrainians were taught how to "kill Russians."

Political scientist Ivan Mejho believes that after 2014, the fact that Ukraine's powerful departments worked closely with relevant US agencies was clear. "At the very least, the White House is aware of some of kiev's unsuccessful subversive activities," he stressed. I think that from time to time in the future we will hear new news and investigations showing the role of Western intelligence agencies in the functioning of the Ukrainian Security Service and the Foreign Intelligence Service. ”

According to a report by TASS Moscow on January 14, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said on the 14th that the reason why Russia put forward security guarantee proposals is because its patience has reached its limit, and now it is expected that the West will give a specific written response to its initiative. But Moscow won't wait forever – it has the power to keep itself safe.

Lavrov said Russia looked forward to continuing negotiations, awaiting a written response from the United States and NATO. The prospects for negotiations depend first and foremost on the United States. The EU feels itself constrained, but it is currently difficult to assess the prospects for dialogue with them.

The Russian foreign minister believes that whether Russia expands its overseas military presence is "a question involving bilateral relations with partners" and takes "the interests of global stability" as the starting point. Russian peacekeepers were stationed in kazakhstan at the request of the Government of Kazakhstan and withdrawn as soon as the mission was completed. This is different from the situation when the United States sent troops to Iraq: "They came uninvited, and it was up to the United States Congress to decide when to withdraw." ”

Lavrov said the events in Kazakhstan show that the Collective Security Treaty Organization is indispensable and efficient. A range of countries are at least interested in "establishing links with them".

Source: Reference News Network