The Russian-American talks on the discussion of Moscow's proposals on security guarantees, opening on January 10 in Geneva, will kick off the big diplomatic week of January 2022.

Its continuation will be the meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels scheduled for January 12, after which the same problems will be discussed in the third round on January 13 in another European capital - now in Vienna, at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council.

The key issues of strategic relations between East and West will become a cross-cutting topic of discussion, in which Russian negotiators will have to play on several platforms at once, and not only with the administration of President Biden, but also with its Euro-Atlantic allies and Ukraine, for several days.

Since the beginning of the 2000s, their unsettledness has undermined relations between Russia and the West, until it led to the current deplorable state.

With this in mind, on December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry published two documents that summarize the essence of what should become the basis of the security negotiation process.

One document is addressed directly to the United States, the other to the North Atlantic Alliance, in connection with which the negotiation process is supposed to be conducted not in one, but in two formats at once.

This, in fact, required this week's diplomatic marathon.

The Russian-American consultations on strategic stability in Geneva should be accompanied by a dialogue with the European allies of the United States, who, contrary to popular belief, cannot be considered just American singers and are able to indicate their special position, which President Biden cannot but reckon with.

Explaining how these two formats of dialogue between Moscow and the West relate to each other, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, on the eve of the Geneva talks, expressed the idea that "these are intersecting but not identical concentric circles."

The agenda of the upcoming discussion really looks as wide as possible, if not immense - from the issues of NATO expansion to the East and the deployment of US strike systems near Russian borders to the withdrawal of troops in Europe and the activity of military exercises in the European theater.

Moreover, it is important to understand the following: by putting forward these proposals, the Russian side made it clear from the outset that it considers the upcoming talks to be almost the last chance to come to an agreement.

If this fails, and, frankly, the likelihood of a new deadlock or failure is very high, then security will no longer be built on limiting military activity and on mutual legally binding obligations, but on a new balance of threats and counter-threats.

Russia is ready to create counter-threats as a compulsory measure, which in an unfavorable scenario, alas, may become inevitable, if the negotiations fail.

One cannot help but recall the plot of the legendary song Deep Purple, recorded on Lake Geneva, by the way, at the height of the Cold War - 50 years ago, in 1972.

How not to repeat the words “Smoke over the water” that have become prophetic:

“We went to Montreux

To the shore of Lake Geneva

Make a recording in a mobile studio.

We had little time...

But some fool with a rocket launcher

Leveled this place to the ground.

Smoke on the water

And fire in the sky.

Smoke on the water".

Now the time on the shores of Lake Geneva at the mobile negotiation studios of diplomats who have come here with their drums and bass guitar is not just little, but very little.

The "fool with a rocket launcher" from the 70s of the last century looks like an innocent rascal against the background of NATO rocket launchers approaching the Russian borders of the third decade of the 2000s.

And over the cold water of the Geneva talks, in which one cannot see the bottom, the same smoke swirls.

The statements made the day before, superimposed on each other, turned out to be extremely contradictory, not allowing even sophisticated experts to draw a conclusion about where everything will come in the end. On the one hand, we are witnessing a determination not to compromise principles, on the other, a readiness to make concessions.

The United States does not plan to deploy offensive missile weapons on the territory of Ukraine and considers it possible to reach agreements with Russia on this matter, a senior representative of the American administration said on the eve of the meeting in Geneva.

“Russia says it feels threatened by the prospect of deploying offensive missile systems in Ukraine.

As President Biden told President Putin, the US has no intention of doing so.

So this is one of the issues where we may come to an understanding if Russia is ready to assume reciprocal obligations, ”he added.

The American side also made it clear that it is ready to consider the possibility of mutual restrictions on military exercises, including flights of strategic aviation.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also spoke in favor of moving towards de-escalation. “In the end, Russia and the United States have achieved this earlier, even in times of strong tension: we worked out the Helsinki agreements, we created the OSCE, we signed the INF and other disarmament agreements, literally this week we, together with other members of the UN Security Council, united our voices to declare that a nuclear war cannot be won, and therefore should not be started, we are committed to working together on the International Space Station and we are working together to bring Iran back to the implementation of the JCPOA, ”the US Secretary of State listed one after another evidence that finding a compromise maybe. However, he was quick to declare that no breakthroughs are expected in Geneva,calling some of the requirements of the Russian side for security guarantees "absolutely impassable". Referring to Russia's key condition that Ukraine should remain outside NATO, the head of American diplomacy said: “We are fully committed to the principle of 'nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.' Just as we are fully committed to the principle of "nothing for Europe without Europe".

And then Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets put in her five cents of the single European currency into the discussion on security. “NATO members agree that concessions cannot be made on the basic principles of international security. It would be unthinkable for us to return to the outdated policy of dividing spheres of influence, and we consider it important that each country has the right to decide security issues on its own, ”said Eva-Maria Liimets.

Several years ago, even before the Ukrainian crisis in 2014, when relations between Russia and the United States were spoiled, but not yet completely spoiled, the patriarch of American diplomacy, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger came to Moscow. In his unimaginably long career, having seen everything, including even hunting a wild boar together with Soviet Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev in Zavidovo, who was honored to listen to his lecture at the residence of the US Ambassador, the legendary Kissinger inspired Russian politicians, experts, journalists with the idea that the failure of the negotiation process on safety are built on high expectations. Or, one might say, in the maximalist positions of the parties.

“There is no absolute security for everyone.

Safety for some means insecurity for others, ”the world-famous character from a history textbook of the second half of the 20th century noted philosophically.

However, Russia is a country of maximalism, without which breakthroughs are impossible in anything: not in science, not in art, not in diplomacy.

Whatever Henry Kissinger may say, Moscow continues to pursue comprehensive security, which must be security for all.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.