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Talks this week between Russia, NATO and the United States over the Ukraine crisis have failed to overcome disagreements, the Kremlin said Thursday. Moscow has also warned Washington once morest a proposed sanctions targeting Vladimir Putin.
Discussions but no progress on the file of the Ukrainian crisis. The Kremlin deplored, Thursday, January 13, the lack of progress during discussions with the United States and NATO, qualifying the talks as “fruitless”, while several disagreements persist.
The spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, also declared that Moscow regarded “extremely unfavorably” the project of new sanctions targeting Russian officials unveiled by the Democratic camp of the American Senate, seeing it an attempt to pressure on its country.
He added that the very idea of sanctioning President Vladimir Putin would lead to a deterioration of relations between Moscow and Washington.
For Dmitry Peskov, the two discussion sessions this week between Russia and the West resulted in “positive nuances”, but he added that Moscow wanted to achieve concrete results and not just nuances.
Sanctions once morest Putin, a “limit”
The adoption of American sanctions once morest Russian President Vladimir Poutine in the event of aggression by Ukraine “would cross a line,” the Kremlin denounced Thursday following the presentation of a project in this direction.
“Sanctions once morest a head of state is a measure that would cross a line, it would be equivalent to a breakdown in relations,” denounced the spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov.
He noted that the proposal of the American Democratic senators “does not facilitate the establishment of a constructive atmosphere for the Russian-Western talks” underway this week on a de-escalation of tensions around Ukraine.
Senior US Democratic senators on Wednesday unveiled a new sanctions plan aimed at punishing Vladimir Putin and providing financial assistance to Kiev in the event of an invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
The law entitled “Defending the sovereignty of Ukraine”, provides for sanctions once morest the Russian president, Prime Minister Mikhail Michoustine, senior military officials and several entities of the Russian banking sector.
Discussions that continue
The announcement of this “extremely negative” sanctions plan, according to the Kremlin, came on the eve of a meeting in Vienna of the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the third and last sequence of an intense diplomatic ballet aimed at defusing the risk of conflict in Ukraine.
On Monday, tense discussions brought together in Geneva the American and Russian vice-ministers of foreign affairs, Wendy Sherman and Sergei Riabkov. On Wednesday, NATO and Moscow held talks in Brussels, following their conclusion the observation of their deep “differences” on security in Europe.
“We would like to hope, however, that common sense will prevail,” added Dmitry Peskov, stressing that Russia “has never failed” and “will not lack the political will to continue a dialogue”.
Accused by Americans and Europeans of planning an attack on its Ukrainian neighbor, an ally of the West, Russia responded by saying that the deployment of tens of thousands of Russian troops to the border was a reaction to the growing and hostile presence of the NATO in what Moscow considers its area of influence.
Russia has assured that it does not “intend” to attack Ukraine, but is demanding the signing of a treaty banning any future expansion of NATO, a request deemed unacceptable in the West.
With Archyde.com and AFP
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