by Mikhail Voskresensky
[RIA Novosti] Moscow conveyed to US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan the reaction to the US response on security guarantees, the Foreign Ministry said.
"We state that the American side did not give a constructive response to the basic elements of the draft treaty with the United States prepared by the Russian side on security guarantees," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It is clarified that we are talking about the rejection of further NATO expansion, the withdrawal of the "Bucharest formula" that "Ukraine and Georgia will become members of NATO", and the rejection of the creation of military bases on the territory of states that were previously part of the USSR and are not members alliance, including the use of their infrastructure for conducting any military activity, as well as the return of military capabilities, including strike, and NATO infrastructure to the state of 1997, when the Russia-NATO Founding Act was signed.
"In the absence of the readiness of the American side to agree on firm, legally binding guarantees to ensure our security from the United States and its allies, Russia will be forced to respond, including through the implementation of measures of a military-technical nature," the text follows.
The document emphasizes that there is no "invasion of Ukraine" and is not planned.
"Allegations of 'Russia's responsibility for the escalation' cannot be regarded otherwise than as an attempt to put pressure on and devalue Russia's proposals for security guarantees," the ministry said.
The Foreign Ministry noted that Russian obligations under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum had nothing to do with the intra-Ukrainian conflict, and also recalled that the loss of territorial integrity by the state occurred as a result of internal processes. The text of the document notes that in order to resolve the situation, it is necessary that Kiev comply with the Minsk agreements, and the West should stop pumping weapons into the country and withdraw all its instructors from there.
"The growing military activity of the United States and NATO directly at Russian borders is alarming, while our" red lines "and core security interests, as well as Russia's sovereign right to protect them, are still being ignored," the ministry said.
The document emphasizes that demands to withdraw troops from certain regions on Russian territory are unacceptable and undermine the prospects for reaching real agreements.
Later, the US State Department confirmed to RIA Novosti that they had received a letter from Russia as part of a bilateral security dialogue.
The entire published text of the Russian Foreign Ministry response can be seen here