“Russia is retreating too often and now is the time to retreat to the West”
The Russian Foreign Ministry has published draft agreements between Russia and the United States and NATO on security guarantees. It informed about it on Friday, December 17, in a document published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The political scientist said how the Moscow proposal should be assessed and what its main significance was.
Photo: Gennady Cherkasov
“The Russian Foreign Ministry's proposal can certainly not be called an 'olive branch,'” comments Alexei Makarkin, vice president of the Center for Political Technology, a professor at the University of Economics. – Russia assumes that it has been making unilateral concessions for a long time. Earlier, the USSR agreed that there would be no more Warsaw Pact when the member states decided to abolish the organization and withdraw from the Soviet sphere of influence. In fact, the Soviet Union abandoned the “Brezhnev Doctrine,” which ensured the limited sovereignty of the Warsaw Pact countries.
This was followed by NATO's eastward expansion in the 1990s, then to the Baltics. countries were admitted to the North Atlantic Alliance in 2000.
Now Russia is assuming that it has retreated too often, and now is the time for the West to retreat. Moscow is sending a relatively hard signal to its partners. The fact is that such proposals are most often sent through diplomatic channels or some informed sources give details. And here they were immediately announced. This whole picture is reminiscent of the first years of Soviet power, when secret diplomacy was declared to end and all proposals would be made openly and publicly so that every worker or peasant could become acquainted with them freely.
This is actually a rather demonstrative step on the part of the Russian Federation. At the same time fully understanding that these proposals will not be accepted. Of course, we can talk about the possibility of some kind of agreement on exercises and military activities in general, but in Russia they are again based on the premise that this is a comprehensive proposal. It is not possible to exclude any elements that are more or less acceptable to the partners and to discuss them exclusively.
At the same time, Russia is showing that this is not an ultimatum. And if I understand that, even if these proposals are not accepted, Moscow wants to at least start discussing them. This is probably an incentive for us to push the US and NATO into a serious debate. And if it doesn't exist, then the dialogue enters a complete impasse.
So now the main goal and desire of Moscow is to get the partners to enter into negotiations in various ways, starting with military activity and ending with such demonstration documents. “/p>
In the introductory part of the treaty, Russia proposed to strengthen the principle of the impossibility of starting a nuclear war. The draft document contains a total of eight articles.
Moscow calls on Washington to agree to act on the principles of indivisible and equal security and without prejudice to the security of the other. To this end, it proposes to make mutual commitments not to take action or take measures that affect the security of the other party. In addition, the parties should not use the territory of other states for the purpose of preparing or carrying out an armed attack on Russia or the United States.
Washington must also commit to excluding further NATO enlargement to the East and refuse to accept former alliance states into the USSR. This requirement applies in particular to Ukraine and Georgia, which are constantly declaring their desire to join the alliance.
In addition, the United States undertakes not to establish military bases on the territory of countries that were formerly part of the USSR and are not members of NATO, as well as to use their infrastructure for any military activity, to develop bilateral military cooperation with them
< p>The Russian Federation proposes to abandon the deployment of armed forces and weapons, including within international organizations, military alliances or coalitions, in areas where such deployment would be perceived by the other party as a threat to its national security, and to refrain from heavy bombers equipped with nuclear or non-nuclear weapons and the presence of surface warships of all classes in areas outside national airspace and outside national territorial waters from which targets in Russia or the United States may strike.
Russia has recommended a return to the principle of non-deployment of medium-range and short-range ground missiles outside the country. Moscow also considers it necessary to exclude the deployment of nuclear weapons outside the country.
The Russian Federation has proposed to the North Atlantic Alliance an agreement proposing to return to the work of the Russia-NATO Council, to restore communication channels and to cease to treat each other as adversaries. Moscow also considers it necessary in nine articles of the document to note that Russia and NATO countries did not deploy their armed forces and weapons on the territory of all other European states, except for the forces that were already on that territory. as of 27 May 1997.
Exclude the deployment of medium- and short-range ground missiles in areas from which they are able to hit targets in the territories of other participants. Exclude further NATO enlargement, including the accession of Ukraine and other countries.
In addition, the member states of the North Atlantic Alliance must renounce any military activity in the territory of Ukraine, as well as other states in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
It should be noted that the Russian Federation's intention to obtain security guarantees in November, President Vladimir Putin announced to the Foreign Ministry board. The Russian leader has instructed representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prepare appropriate proposals. “It is necessary to raise the issue of trying to provide Russia with serious long-term guarantees to ensure our security in this regard, because Russia cannot exist and constantly think about what can happen there tomorrow,” the head of state noted. >