Putin in a conversation with Macron demanded ″security guarantees″ for the Russian Federation | News from Germany about Russia | DW

Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a telephone conversation with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, reiterated Moscow’s demands for “legally binding security guarantees in Europe.” This was reported by the Kremlin press service on Friday, January 28, following a conversation between the two leaders.

In the conversation, Putin promised that the Russian side would “carefully study” the written responses of the United States and NATO to its proposals, after which it would decide on further actions, the report said. At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that the American and NATO responses “did not take into account the fundamental concerns” of Moscow, such as preventing the expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance, refusing to deploy strike weapons systems near Russian borders, as well as returning the bloc’s military potential and infrastructure in Europe to positions of 1997, when the NATO-Russia Founding Act was signed.

In addition, according to Putin, Western countries have ignored the key issue of how the US and its allies will follow the principle of indivisibility of security, which is enshrined in the documents of the OSCE and the Russia-NATO Council. It stipulates that no one should strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other countries.

The need to de-escalate the conflict

According to dpa, citing sources at the Elysee Palace, Macron and Putin agreed on the need to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine and that the settlement of the conflict would require negotiations on various topics. They noted that in order to achieve de-escalation, direct negotiations between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine are necessary, as well as further negotiations in the Normandy format, with the participation of France and Germany.

On January 26, during a meeting in Paris, representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France discussed the situation in Donbass in the Normandy format for the first time in a long time. Negotiations are to continue in Berlin in early February. Later on Friday, Macron is expected to have a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

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