By Paul Craig Roberts - December 14, 2021

A Russian foot has come down. The euphemistic language “our Western partners” is discarded for the realistic “our opponents.” Russian patience with Washington has come to an end.

“If our opponents go against us, they will see that their security is not strengthened. The consequences for them will be dire. . . . Lack of progress towards a political and diplomatic solution to this problem [Ukraine] will lead to our response being military and technological.” –Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov

https://www.rt.com/russia/543026-nato-expansion-lead-consequences/

This statement made December 10, 2021 by the Russian Foreign Ministry is not a request. It is a demand.

Excerpts:

"As a pretext, the West is using the situation in Ukraine, where it embarked on encouraging Russophobia and justifying the actions of the Kiev regime to undermine the Minsk agreements and prepare for a military scenario in Donbass."

"The course has been chosen of drawing Ukraine into NATO, which is fraught with the deployment of strike missile systems there with a minimal flight time to Central Russia, and other destabilising weapons. Such irresponsible behaviour creates grave military risks for all parties involved, up to and including a large-scale conflict in Europe."

"We insist that serious long-term legal guarantees are provided, which would exclude NATO’s further advancement to the east and deployment of weapons on Russia’s western borders which are a threat to Russia. This must be done within a specific timeframe and on the basis of the principle of comprehensive and indivisible security."

"To ensure the vital interests of European security, it is necessary to officially disavow the decision taken at the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest about “Ukraine and Georgia becoming NATO members” as contrary to the commitment undertaken by all the OSCE participating States “not to strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other States.”

"We insist on the adoption of a legally binding agreement regarding the US and other NATO member countries’ non-deployment of strike weapons systems which threaten the territory of the Russian Federation on the territories of adjacent countries, both members and non-members of NATO."

"We also insist on receiving a concrete response from NATO to our previous proposals on decreasing tension in Europe."

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