Putin: Russia’s actions not depend on talks, but on its security
Moscow’s further actions will depend not on progress in negotiations with the US on security guarantees, but on real action, taken to ensure Russia’s security, President Vladimir Putin told the year-end news conference on Thursday.
“As for the guarantees [of security] and what will depend on progress in negotiations, our actions will depend not on progress in the talks, but on unconditional measures to ensure Russia’s security today and in the long term,” Putin said in reply to a corresponding question.
In this connection, Putin said that Russia had made it pretty clear that “NATO’s further expansion to the East is unacceptable.”
Putin also wondered how the Americans might react if Russia deployed its missiles in Mexico or Canada on the border with the US.
“Are we planting missiles near US borders? No. It is the United States that has brought its missiles to our doorstep,” Putin said. “Is it an excessive demand – no more attack systems near our home? Is there something unusual about this?”
“Have Mexico and the United States never had any territorial disputes? Whom did California belong to in the past? And how about Texas? Have they forgotten? Nobody recalls all this the way many tend to look at Crimea these days. We, too, have been trying not to recall how today’s Ukraine took shape and who created it – Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union. There was the Union Treaty of 1922 and the Constitution of 1924. The latter was adopted after his death, but in accordance with his principles,” Putin said.
On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry published drafts of a treaty with the United States on security guarantees and of an agreement on measures to ensure the security of Russia and the NATO countries. The drafts were handed to the US side at a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry on December 15.
