Russiaupdated 18m ago2 min read
Russia Demands NATO Pull Back and Veto Over Exercises in Ukraine Talks
“They include that Finland withdraw from Nato”
“Russia has not demanded Finland's withdrawal from NATO”
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Russia demands NATO retreat to positions held in 1997, rolling back eastern flank. Finland leaves NATO; Baltic states' bases barred, under Abu Dhabi talks per Bild.
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NATO veto demands
Russia’s demands in the negotiations described by El País center on NATO pulling back its defensive infrastructure to Germany and on the Kremlin having the final say in guarantees offered to neighboring countries. Moscow demands written guarantees that it will not admit new members and that Moscow will have a veto even for any type of exercises with third countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Vladimir Putin said, "If new missile complexes appear on Ukrainian territory, their flight time to Moscow will be seven to ten minutes, and in the case of the deployment of hypersonic weapons, five," in December 2021.
Bild claims Russian negotiators put on the Abu Dhabi table not only the withdrawal of bases from the Baltic states but also the complete departure of Finland from NATO. El País says Russia would offer to remove the nuclear weapons it deployed in 2023 in Belarus in exchange for those NATO-linked concessions.
Finland rejects, NATO rollback
Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen told reporters in Helsinki that Russia’s demands that NATO reduce its presence along the alliance’s eastern flank are “not negotiable,” and he called it “absolutely outrageous to even suggest such.”
Häkkänen argued that Russia wants European NATO countries to set limits on their own operations to serve Russian interests, and he said, “Russia knows this.”
Häkkänen described the demands as a test of US and European resolve after two days of Russia-Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi.
German newspaper Bild said Russian negotiators put forward demands in Abu Dhabi including that Finland withdraw from Nato and that the alliance be barred from having military bases in the Baltic states.
Häkkänen said, "Such matters are in no way a matter for negotiation. Russia knows that. This is absolutely outrageous to even suggest such a thing," and Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said it is “a matter for Finland and the alliance to decide on Nato membership.”
Talks expand beyond Ukraine
i24NEWS says Bild reported that Russia demanded Finland leave NATO and that the alliance give up its military bases in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania during talks in Abu Dhabi.
Russia’s proposal would have Ukraine remain nonaligned and give up its bid to join NATO, while EU membership would remain possible.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, “Then, of course, we would be prepared to speak with them,” adding that Putin remained open to contact.
The New York Times says Russia revived demands that NATO pull back forces from its eastern flank in Poland and the Baltics, and it says the Russians laid out the position in a paper circulated by Russian officials.
The New York Times says the paper shows that President Vladimir V. Putin has “scarcely budged on his core objectives,” and it frames the NATO pullback demand as thrusting “the question of European security into the heart of the negotiations over Ukraine.”