MOSCOW, Feb 16 - RIA Novosti. Russia is set up exclusively for a diplomatic dialogue on the security guarantees it has proposed, it is talking about them precisely because it does not want war, Senator Olga Kovitidi told RIA Novosti.
"It is important to realize that clearly formulated guarantees of Russia's national security are inextricably linked with issues of European security. Russia is committed exclusively to a diplomatic dialogue based solely on common sense," she said.
According to Kovitidi, it is necessary to clear the information world space from aggressive rhetoric. "Everything is very simple and clear. Russia does not want war, so it talks about security," the senator stressed.
She recalled that the Russian Federation considers peace in Europe, the non-expansion of NATO, the shift of the alliance's military infrastructure to the state of 1997 and the non-deployment of combat strike complexes near the Russian borders to be its national interests.
"If NATO expects to survive, then the alliance must change. The spirit of cooperation and mutual understanding should return to world politics. Trust between the OSCE participating states must be restored," Kovitidi said.
At the end of 2021, Russia published drafts of a treaty with the United States and an agreement with NATO on security guarantees. Moscow, in particular, demands from Western partners legal guarantees against further expansion of NATO to the east, from joining the bloc of Ukraine and from the creation of military bases in post-Soviet countries. The proposals also contain a clause on the non-deployment of NATO strike weapons near the borders of Russia and the withdrawal of alliance forces in Eastern Europe to the positions of 1997. At the end of January, the United States and NATO sent written responses to Russia's proposals on security guarantees to Moscow.
On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Russian reaction to the responses of the United States and NATO to Russia's security proposals will be published.
