On Tuesday, December 7, the presidents of Russia and the United States held talks via video link.

One of the key topics of the conversation, which lasted about two hours, was the aggravation of the situation in Ukraine and the problem of NATO expansion to the east.

Thus, Vladimir Putin drew the attention of his American counterpart to the fact that it is the North Atlantic Alliance that is making attempts to "develop" Ukrainian territory and is building up its military potential at the Russian borders.

“Therefore, Russia is seriously interested in obtaining reliable, legally fixed guarantees that exclude NATO expansion in an eastern direction and the deployment of offensive strike weapons systems in states adjacent to Russia,” the Kremlin’s press service explained Moscow’s position.

Aide to the Russian president, Yuri Ushakov, later said that Biden had informed the Russian leader of his intention to discuss with allies all concerns expressed by Moscow, including the issue of expanding the alliance.

In turn, adviser to the US President Jake Sullivan said that during the negotiations, Joe Biden made no concessions or commitments regarding NATO's eastward expansion.

"He (Biden. -

RT

) proceeds from the premise that countries should be able to freely choose who they partner with," Sullivan said.

According to the adviser to the American leader, Joe Biden also told the Russian president that Washington would provide additional military assistance to Kiev and strengthen the eastern flank of the alliance "if Russia further invades Ukraine."

At the same time, he added that the United States still does not believe that Russia has decided to "attack" Ukraine.

The day before, State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the United States adheres to an "open door" policy on NATO, answering the question of why the alliance continues to expand eastward despite a promise to Russia not to do so.

“We have made it clear… that NATO's doors are open and we are committed to an open door policy… that NATO should remain an available option for aspirant countries when they are ready and able to meet the identified and membership obligations. In particular, this means that they can - can and want - to contribute to ensuring security in the Euro-Atlantic area, ”Price said.

In this regard, he noted, Ukraine's claims to membership in the bloc are justified and supported by Washington, despite Moscow's discontent.

According to him, the expansion of NATO is due to "the policy that the United States has been pursuing for many years."

At the same time, Price avoided answering the question of whether Washington considers the verbal guarantees of non-expansion of the bloc given by the American Secretary of State James Baker to the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev as a mistake.

Instead, he stated: “NATO is a defensive alliance.

At its core ... and in focus, it is defensive.

The idea that NATO, or a country aspiring to membership such as Ukraine, could pose a threat to Russia ... would be laughable if the situation were not so serious. "

  • US State Department Spokesman Ned Price

  • Reuters

  • © Andrew Harnik

According to Price, all Moscow's statements about threats emanating from the bloc are "chatter" and attempts to "fabricate some far-fetched justification ... so that the Russian Armed Forces can do what was probably planned from the very beginning."

However, AP journalist Matt Lee, who became widely known for his embarrassing questions to the State Department representatives, pointed to the fact that Moscow has reason to worry about its security, since it has examples of NATO operations in Yugoslavia before its eyes.

and Libya.

In response to this, Ned Price stated that he did not see the similarity in the current and the listed situations.

He also stated that the United States is ready for dialogue if Russia has doubts about NATO's true intentions.

Struggle for guarantees

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin, speaking on November 30 at the investment forum "Russia Calling!"

In his opinion, there is no sensible answer to the question about the reasons for the buildup of NATO forces in the immediate vicinity of the borders of the Russian Federation.

“Despite our warnings, despite our conversations, requests, the infrastructure nevertheless approached our borders.

Things have come to the point that anti-missile defense systems are now deployed in Poland and Romania, and the launchers that are there - Mk 41 - can also be equipped with Tomahawks and strike systems.

This creates threats for us - this is an obvious fact, an obvious thing, ”Putin said.

He also stressed that the development of hypersonic weapons was started by Moscow exclusively as a forced response to the actions of the North Atlantic Alliance. In the same context, he noted the situation with Ukraine.

“If some kind of shock complexes appear on the territory of Ukraine, the flight time to Moscow will be seven to ten minutes, and in the case of placing hypersonic weapons - five minutes ... But what should we do? Then we will have to create something similar in relation to those who threaten us so, can you imagine? And we can do it now, because we have now tested it successfully, and from the beginning of the year we will have in service a new sea-based missile, hypersonic, in Mach nine. The flight time will be up to those who give orders, also five minutes. Where are we going? Why are we doing this? The creation of such threats for us is the "red line," Putin said.

On the whole, according to the Russian president, NATO is a "vestige of the Cold War" and the current mission of the alliance is "not very clear."

In an interview with NBC in June, he noted that the West ignored promises regarding the alliance's actions, since they were not recorded in any documents.

“They deceived a fool into four fists - that's what the people say here.

We need to fix everything on paper, ”the president said.

In this regard, he pointed to the priority for Russia of the task of obtaining written guarantees from the United States and its allies that would exclude any further NATO advance to the east.

“We need legal and legal guarantees, since our Western colleagues did not fulfill their respective oral obligations,” Putin stressed at the ceremony of presenting credentials to foreign ambassadors on December 1.

“We see that NATO is now showing an extremely aggressive stance.

We see the rhetoric of Mr. Stoltenberg, we see the rhetoric of various representatives of the United States of America.

They all say that they do not recognize any red lines - once, they say that NATO will do whatever it wants - two, on any territory - three, and all this in order to contain the Russian Federation - four.

We don't like this.

We do so in order to insure our own interests, "the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov commented on the situation to RT.

Under the sign of opposition

Experts believe that the reason for the current tensions fueled by the United States is that Washington wants to remind the world of its role as hegemon.

In addition, analysts believe, in this way, the United States intends to strengthen the image of Russia as an enemy and shift the responsibility for the escalation of the situation in Ukraine onto it.

However, the methods that the American authorities are using for this are increasingly reminiscent of geopolitical radicalism, RT interlocutors say.

“The United States views Russia as a geopolitical rival, and uses the Ukrainian crisis to put pressure on it.

No one in Washington really cares about the welfare of Kiev and Ukraine in general.

It is used simply as a convenient tool to contain Moscow, ”explained Sergei Ermakov, an expert at the RISS Research Coordination Center.

At the same time, he pointed out that, despite all the declared encouragement of Ukrainian aspirations to the alliance, no one in NATO is in a hurry to accept it there.

“The idea of ​​'open doors' was put forward back in 2008.

Since then, no specific accession programs have been proposed for either Ukraine or Georgia, proceeding from the fact that NATO itself is not eager to take responsibility for the security of Ukraine itself.

Nobody is ready for the commitments outlined in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Collective Security Treaty.

After all, it says that an armed attack on one of the members of the alliance should be considered as an attack on the bloc as a whole, which will require joint retaliatory steps, ”the expert noted.

  • NATO military exercise in Romania

  • © REUTERS / Radu Sigheti

Moreover, as Pavel Feldman, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of RUDN University, emphasized, the United States, in pursuit of geopolitical ambitions, endangers its allies, and the EU is well aware of this.

“The United States, using its allies in Eastern Europe, is actually seeking to ensure only its own security, thereby unwittingly posing a threat to its European partners.

However, Washington skillfully uses the theme of the Russian threat to substantiate its intentions to expand its military presence, effectively occupying European countries, ”Feldman explained.

All this, he stressed, is forcing Moscow to return to the bloc system of political containment of its long-standing adversary.

“If the Western world can conditionally grow at the expense of Ukraine and Georgia, then the Russian military-strategic alliance will strengthen due to the intensification of military cooperation with Belarus, Armenia and other post-Soviet countries that have maintained partnership relations with Moscow and who want to build a collective security system exactly just like NATO did earlier, ”the analyst said.

Feldman also believes that it is not worth waiting for the US to take steps to de-escalate the current situation, since it does not meet their interests.

In the same vein, Washington will perceive Vladimir Putin's initiative to legally consolidate NATO's actions in the context of expansion, the interlocutor of RT believes.

“There is no reason to believe that the United States will undertake any obligations and abandon the foreign defense policy that it has been pursuing since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Most likely, if any agreements in this area are reached, they will again only be of a public nature.

On paper, the United States will never be ready to consolidate these agreements, ”the expert noted.

According to Sergei Ermakov, the very basis of NATO is the need for constant expansion.

“The logic of the existence of this alliance envisages that it will constantly expand, since it is in this that the bloc sees the meaning and justification of its existence.

Moreover, now on the sidelines at a high level there is already talk that it would be nice to move nuclear weapons somewhere in Europe.

And this is already a direct violation of even the very commitments and promises that NATO themselves recognize.

In this regard, the alliance will not bind themselves with any new agreements, ”the analyst concluded.