This is the script Putin has read before. In the closing remarks, he spoke of NATO’s history of deception, saying that the coalition had previously promised to expand “not an inch” east.
“He said one thing, he did another,” Putin said. “As people say, they spoiled us, well they betrayed us.”
Other points raised by Putin – a halt to NATO expansion to the east and the return of NATO infrastructure in Europe in 1997 – were also not new. On those issues, Washington and Moscow stay away: the US and NATO insist on an open-door policy to new members and say Russia has no veto on new membership.
So what, exactly, was the takeaway? Putin has yet to give a full, formal response to letters from the US and NATO sent a week ago in response to Russia’s security demands, and it is unclear when a response will come.
What was shocking was Putin’s return to his obsession with Ukraine and his view of its proper relationship with Russia. In his remarks, Putin stressed that the US aimed at Ukraine to “draw us into an armed conflict” by using the country as a springboard for NATO operations.
“Their main task is to stop the development of Russia,” Putin said. “In this sense, Ukraine itself is just a means to achieve this goal. This can be done in different ways. Draw us into some kind of armed conflict and force – among other things – their allies in Europe To impose very strict sanctions against us that are being talked about in the United States today. Or get Ukraine into NATO, install a strike weapon system there and encourage some banderites [Ukrainian nationalists] Solving the issue of Donbass or Crimea by force of arms. And thus drag us into an armed struggle!”
“I hope we will eventually find this solution, although it is not easy, and we are aware of it,” he said. “But what that will be, I’m not ready to say today, of course.”
The initiative in this regard, remains, of Putin.
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