Russian President's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is moving troops across its territory in response to the unfriendly actions of the United States and NATO countries, and has every right to do so. 

“Whatever Russia does with its troops, it does it on its own territory.

And here we can hardly allow and agree to the fact that someone disputed this our sovereign right.

Russia is taking certain actions to move and redeploy its armed forces within its own territory against the background of very, very unfriendly actions of our opponents in NATO, the United States and various European countries, which conduct very unambiguous maneuvers, exercises in the immediate vicinity of our border, and conduct reconnaissance flights , movement of ships, ”a Kremlin spokesman told reporters.

Dmitry Peskov stressed that the actions of the Western countries cause deep concern in Moscow and force the Russian side "to take certain measures to guarantee its own security."

The press secretary of the Russian president added that Moscow expects "in January to receive from opponents from Washington concretely formulated answers" to the questions of Russia, which "were voiced, and the proposals that were formulated in the draft text of the well-known treaty and well-known agreement."

Washington pressure

Peskov's words about Russia's right to move troops within its borders came in response to the White House's statement that the Russian Federation allegedly continues to build up its military grouping on the border with Ukraine.

The day before, this information was announced at a press briefing by a representative of the White House.

“We continue to closely monitor the alarming transfer and deployment of Russian military forces along the border with Ukraine,” said a spokesman for the US presidential administration.

At the same time, the official added that “if Russia goes further, we and our allies are ready to take harsh retaliatory measures that will damage the Russian economy and lead to exactly what, according to her, she does not want: expansion, not reduction of opportunities NATO;

approaching the borders of Russia, not retreating. "

According to a White House spokesman, Washington explained this position to Moscow.

At the same time, the American side is ready to start diplomatic communication in early January through several channels, the American official said.

However, the US and NATO do not plan to conduct a dialogue with the Russian Federation on these issues in public space, the functionary added.

“Such diplomatic conversations do not seem constructive to us, and we do not believe that they have made progress in the past.

We are not going to respond to every proposal or comment, including from the Russian president, "said a White House spokesman.

Earlier, the Pentagon also announced the presence of an allegedly significant accumulation of Russian military forces near the border with Ukraine.

In particular, this information was announced at a press briefing on December 20 by the official representative of the US defense department, John Kirby.

“There is still a significant Russian military presence at the border with Ukraine,” Kirby said.

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This is not the first time a Pentagon spokesman has made such statements.

Thus, during a briefing on December 10, Kirby announced that the Russian Federation had allegedly deployed "an impressive number of Russian troops" on the border with Ukraine.

At the same time, he refused to answer a journalist's question about whether the United States is increasing its military presence on the eastern flank of NATO.

The need for guarantees

Let us recall that since the beginning of November, the West has been actively discussing the topic of a "military invasion" of Ukraine, which Russia allegedly plans.

At the same time, the media disseminating this information in their materials rely on "anonymous sources" who are allegedly familiar with the data of American intelligence on this issue.

Against the backdrop of an information campaign on the preparation of an "invasion" forced by the Western media and governments, negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden took place in early December.

Following the talks, the Kremlin press service reported that 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 near the Russian borders.

For this reason, Moscow is seriously interested in obtaining reliable, legally fixed guarantees that exclude NATO expansion in an eastern direction, the head of the Russian state said.

On December 17, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation published two draft documents on the provision of legal security guarantees from the United States and NATO.

After that, negotiations on this topic were held by the presidents' assistants Yuri Ushakov and Jake Sullivan. 

However, despite Moscow's call for a dialogue on security in Europe, Washington continues to escalate the situation, regularly making statements about the alleged accumulation of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, experts interviewed by RT say.

“Russia is a sovereign state, with its own armed forces and its own nuclear potential, and has the right to move, concentrate and mobilize its troops as it sees fit.

At the same time, Russia has never indicated to the Americans where on the territory of the United States they need to deploy their military units.

Moreover, Russia is not moving troops to the territory of Ukraine, "said Alexander Mikhailov, head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, in a conversation with RT.

The troops, about the movement of which Washington is worried about, are in the Western Military District, since this is where various provocations most often occur, Mikhailov emphasized.

“In this direction, we are witnessing the already regular attempts to provoke the border services of the FSB, the Armed Forces and the Russian Navy to strike either at the Ukrainian, or at the British, or at another ship of the NATO alliance.

In addition, according to our intelligence, new military provocations are expected, "added the interlocutor of RT.

According to Vladimir Batyuk, chief researcher at the Institute for the United States and Canada, the Americans do not like that “time is clearly not working in favor of their Ukrainian allies,” and the conflict in eastern Ukraine remains frozen.

“Of course, the Americans would prefer that the Kiev authorities solve the problem of Donbass quickly and present everyone with a fait accompli.

But this, obviously, will not happen, and the United States does not like it at all, "added the interlocutor of RT.

Therefore, Washington will continue to escalate the information situation around the border of Ukraine in order to use it as an excuse to slow down or sabotage the dialogue with Russia on security guarantees in Europe, the military analyst said.

“At the same time, it can be expected that the United States will agree to an agreement on non-deployment in Europe of some medium-range ground-based systems such as ballistic or hypersonic missiles.

This is quite possible, since it would correspond to the security interests of both Russia and NATO, ”noted Vladimir Batyuk.

In turn, Alexander Mikhailov believes that it is rather difficult to predict the outcome of future negotiations on security guarantees.

“Russia has raised the stakes in the dialogue as much as possible by presenting its proposals on security in Europe to the US and NATO.

Naturally, the Americans will try to evade the implementation of all the proposed points.

It can be expected that they will submit counter-proposals, which will contain deliberately unrealizable conditions, but now it is inexpedient to predict the results of this dialogue before its practical start, ”the expert concluded.