MOSCOW, December 16, Reuters -- Russia said on Thursday that it was ready to send a government negotiator at any moment to start talks with the US on the security guarantees it is seeking in order to defuse the crisis over Ukraine.
The Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, who held a two-hour video call on Dec. 7, could speak again before the New Year, though nothing firm had been agreed.
Peskov said deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov would be ready to travel to any neutral country to start talks.
Ukraine and the United States say Russia has moved more than 90,000 troops within reach of the Ukrainian border and may be poised to invade, which Moscow denies.
Russia feels threatened by growing ties between NATO and Ukraine, which wants to join the alliance, and the possibility of NATO missiles being deployed on Ukrainian soil.
Peskov was asked about the possibility of talks between Putin and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, but Peskov stated that it was not clear what the agenda for any such discussions would be.
He said Russia's security proposals, handed over on Wednesday to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried in Moscow, consisted of two draft documents, which he described as a treaty and an agreement.
He declined to discuss the content, but told reporters they would find out when Russia's foreign ministry said last week that NATO should rescind its 2008 commitment to Ukraine and Georgia that they would one day become members, and promise not to deploy weapons in countries bordering Russia that could threaten its security.
Moscow called for the re-establishing of a regular defence dialogue with the United States and NATO and urged Washington to join a moratorium on deploying intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe.
Ryabkov said this week that Russia would be forced into a confrontation where it would have to deploy such missiles.