Vladimir Putin conceptually approved the draft Russian response prepared by the Foreign Ministry on security guarantees.

This was announced by the press secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov, specifying that the diplomats are working on finalizing the text.

The project was presented to the head of state by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“The President has approved the conceptual project presented by Lavrov.

Now the diplomats are working on the finalization of the text, which will subsequently be sent to the addressees," Peskov said.

When asked when Putin would approve Russia's response to the messages from Washington and Brussels, Peskov said that the head of state would do it "on time."

Recall that on December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft treaties with the United States and agreements with NATO on security guarantees, which were handed over to Washington and the leadership of the North Atlantic Alliance.

The documents, in particular, contain provisions on the non-deployment of medium-range and shorter-range missiles within each other's reach, mutual security guarantees in Europe, and the refusal to further expand NATO, including at the expense of the former Soviet republics. 

On January 21, Lavrov held a meeting in Geneva with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, during which the parties clarified some issues on the Russian proposals.

At the end of January, Russia received US and NATO responses to their proposals.

As Lavrov said during a February 14 meeting with Vladimir Putin, the US response on security guarantees consists of two parts.

The first responds to questions of non-expansion of NATO, non-deployment of strike weapons and the return of military and military-technical configurations in Europe to the positions of 1997.

“On these questions, the answer is no; of course, it cannot satisfy us,” Lavrov stressed.

The second part of the US response is constructive, the minister said.

“It provides for quite specific measures with regard to solving the problems of land-based medium-range and shorter-range missiles after the Americans destroyed the corresponding treaty.

It also contains specific proposals on a number of measures to reduce military risks, confidence-building measures and military ones,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov noted that the Russian initiative on European security "shaken up Western colleagues and served as the very reason why they were no longer able to ignore many of our previous appeals."

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He also said that Russia's draft response to the US and NATO responses on security assurances was ten pages long.

During the meeting, Putin asked the foreign minister if he thought there was a chance to reach an agreement with the United States and NATO on key issues of concern, or whether the West was trying to drag Moscow into an endless negotiation process.

Lavrov recalled that Russia had warned more than once about the inadmissibility of endless conversations on issues “that need to be resolved today,” and expressed the opinion that there is such a chance.

“Still, our consistent explanatory work and commitment to clarifying our innocence, while being ready to listen to some serious counterarguments, it seems to me that our possibilities are far from being exhausted.

Of course, they should not continue indefinitely, but at this stage I would suggest that they be continued and increased,” he said.

As Oleg Postnikov, deputy director of the Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said earlier, the department continues to analyze the position of Washington and NATO regarding Russian proposals.

“We continue to analyze the considerations received from the United States and NATO, and form our positions on further actions,” TASS quoted him as saying.

Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Mass Communications of the Financial University Alexander Shatilov, in an interview with RT, noted that the United States is increasingly "entering" Ukraine and a number of other former Soviet republics posing a threat to Russia's national security.

“Therefore, Moscow has outlined its tough position.

The actions of the United States and the collective West are absolutely destructive,” he said.

Dmitry Peskov, commenting on security talks with the West, noted that Moscow is preparing for the worst, but is hoping for the best.

“In terms of conceptual issues for us, the Americans ignore our concerns, I mean the question raised by President Putin about security guarantees.

Therefore, in this regard, the situation is so bleak, but we still hope.

As reasonable people, we are preparing for the worst, but we still hope for the best, ”said the Kremlin spokesman.