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HIGHLY recommend this article.

PIF article linked earlier today: https://www.bbc.com/russian/articles/cxrxlwr2q4ro

“Questions about the points of the ultimatum should have arisen, for example, in terms of demands to return NATO troops to the state of 1997, says Bondarev. Moscow seemed to have forgotten that at that time 300,000 American military personnel were stationed in Europe, and not 5-7 thousand, as in 2021.”

“the expert ironically, what was happening looked like Moscow was asking NATO to pretend that this alliance had lost in the Cold War.”

“On February 2, 2022, the text of Washington’s and Brussels’ responses to Moscow’s demands was published by the Spanish El Pais. NATO offered talks on abandoning the deployment of offensive missile systems and troops in Ukraine and strategic security in Europe, the US wanted to limit nuclear weapons. Washington even agreed to discuss the issue of Tomahawk missiles stationed in Poland and Romania and capable of reaching Russia, a question that had worried Moscow for many years.

Gabuev, who spoke with Russian diplomats at the time, recalls that those American proposals were pleasantly surprised: “Wow, now we have to sit in Geneva for another couple of months, and we will put on paper ideal agreements that will really strengthen security.” Even Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin, in a conversation with the BBC, admits that an agreement on the neutral status of Ukraine was “in the air.”

According to Gabuev, the Kremlin in those days could have won a big diplomatic victory, albeit with the help of blackmail, but Putin had already decided to fight, and communication with NATO turned out to be just a smokescreen. The president eventually announced that the alliance had ignored “fundamental Russian concerns.””

““Russia is ready to cooperate with NATO […] Up to joining the alliance.” It’s hard to believe, but these words were spoken by Vladimir Putin in March 2000 . And he added: “I cannot imagine my country isolated from Europe.””