Russia – President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference. “It is already clear — I informed the Prime Minister about this — that the fundamental Russian concerns were ignored. We did not see an adequate consideration of our three key requirements.”
He added that Russia have not seen “adequate consideration of our three key demands regarding NATO expansion, the renunciation of the deployment of strike weapons systems near Russian borders, and the return of the [NATO] bloc’s military infrastructure in Europe to the state of 1997 when the Russia-NATO founding act was signed.”
Putin also said that the United States is luring Russia into conflict. He claimed that Washington’s main goal is to force “allies in Europe to impose the very tough sanctions against us,” or “draw Ukraine into NATO.”
President Vladimir Putin also said “I hope that this dialogue will continue,” he said, adding: “I hope that we will eventually find this solution, although it is not an easy one, and we are aware of this. But what that will be, I’m not ready to say today, of course.”
Putin also characterized NATO’s history of deception, claiming that the alliance promised to expand “not an inch” eastward. “They said one thing, they did another,” Putin said. “As people say, they screwed us over, well they simply deceived us.”
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