'We Have Run Out Of Patience': Lavrov Calls For West To Respond Quickly To Kremlin Demands
According to RFE/RL, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow has "run out of patience" with the West and expects a written response to its demands for security guarantees within a week after diplomatic talks with NATO and the United States failed to make headway on the issue amid a buildup of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine.
Diplomats have offered a dire assessment of a week of high-level diplomacy that included bilateral talks between Washington and Moscow, and separate rounds of discussions with NATO and the the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) against the backdrop of Western concerns that Russia's military buildup on Ukraine's doorstep may be a prelude to an invasion.
Speaking at his annual foreign policy news conference on January 14, Lavrov said the Kremlin wouldn’t wait indefinitely for the Western response to Moscow’s demands that NATO neither expand nor deploy forces to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet states, which the Kremlin has said were key to diplomatic efforts to defuse soaring tensions over Ukraine.
“We have run out of patience,” Lavrov said at the news conference.
Washington and its allies have firmly rejected Moscow's demand for security guarantees precluding NATO's expansion and warned of "massive consequences" if Russia renews its aggression against Ukraine. U.S. officials have cast Russia's combative rhetoric and buildup of some 100,000 troops near Ukraine as a pressure tactic and said that the United States, while open to dialogue, will never submit to blackmail or allow such threats to be rewarded.
NATO has also stated clearly that it would not compromise on core principles, including the right for sovereign nations to decide what kinds of security arrangements they want to be part of.
U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith said earlier this week that no alliance member was willing to budge on NATO's open-door policy, while reiterating a commitment to meaningful reciprocal dialogue with Russia.
Lavrov said Russia, too, wants the standoff over security in Europe to be resolved with mutual respect and a balance of interests, but has warned it will consider various options to respond if the West spurns Russia's security proposals.
The White House said on January 13 that the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine remained high and the United States would make public within 24 hours intelligence suggesting Russia might seek to invent a pretext to justify one.
