WASHINGTON, Jan 7, Reuters - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of gaslighting and pushing a false narrative that it was under threat from Ukraine and NATO to justify a troop build-up near its border with the former Soviet republic.
Blinken addressed reporters at the State Department ahead of meetings at https://www.reuters.com. COM world europe veteran-us russia-diplomats tackle-ukraine tensions-geneva -- 2022 -- 01 - 07 of U.S. and Russian diplomats in Europe next week aimed at bringing down the temperature between Russia and the West, after a virtual meeting with NATO foreign ministers earlier on Friday.
Blinken said Russia has worked for years to undermine Ukraine's democratic institutions, block energy and commerce, and sow mistrust with propaganda and disinformation.
Russia had positioned nearly 100,000 troops near its border with Ukraine with plans to mobilize twice that number in very short order and justified doing so with misinformation that Ukraine was trying to provoke a conflict, Blinken said.
That's like the fox saying it had to attack the hen house because its occupants pose a threat. We've seen this gaslighting before, according to Blinken, citing Russia's seizure of Crimea in 2014 and backing of separatists in the Donbass region.
The idea that Ukraine is the aggressor in the situation is absurd, Blinken said, adding that Moscow was simultaneously driving the false narrative that NATO is threatening Russia. There were areas of potential progress in next week's meetings, and a diplomatic solution was still possible and preferable, according to Blinken.
He said that next week we will reconfirm our readiness to increase transparency, institute new risk reduction measures and renew efforts to address nuclear and conventional threats to European security. It has to be a two-way street.