Despite pledging the opposite, NATO has used its ‘open door policy’ over the past few years to absorb several former Warsaw Pact countries, and its “gradual invasion” into Ukraine has brought it next to Russia’s red line, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said, stressing that this situation poses an imminent threat to European security.
Citing documented Western promises in an interview for CNN aired on Sunday, Dmitry Peskov pointed that those promises that NATO would not expand further eastwards have never been fixed in a legally binding way, and when it comes to the former Soviet bloc, Moscow has drawn the line at Ukraine.
Underscoring the gradual invasion of NATO into Ukrainian territory, with its infrastructure, instructors, and defensive and offensive weapons’ supplies, Putin’s spokesman said that those moves by the US-led bloc have created a situation that threatens both Russia and the whole security architecture of Europe.
Until the war that broke out in Ukraine in 2014, most of the 3,000-km border Russia shares with Ukraine was almost completely unfortified so moving NATO troops along those borders brings them directly to the red line Russia.
It was a situation, as Peskov described, Moscow couldn’t tolerate anymore so it has drafted a set of proposals to improve collective security, including guarantees that prevent NATO from expanding eastwards or offering membership to any former Soviet country that is bordering Russia.
These proposals were rejected during the talks last week by both the United States as well as the Western alliance – Peskov called NATO “a weapon of confrontation” on Sunday- so Putin’s spokesman has warned of further escalations unless a compromise is found.
Moscow, according to Pesokv, will have counter-actions ready should NATO continues with deployments to Ukraine, stressing at the same time this does not mean all-out military action.
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