MOSCOW, December 20 Reuters - Russia said on Monday it needed a response from the United States on its sweeping security demands and warned of a Russian military response unless it saw political action to assuage its concerns.
Moscow, which has unnerved the West with a troop buildup near Ukraine, unveiled a wish list of security proposals it wants to negotiate, including a promise that NATO would give up military activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine.
Washington has said some of Russia's proposals are obviously unacceptable, but the United States will respond with more concrete proposals on the format of any talks this week.
Konstantin Gavrilov, a Russian diplomat in Vienna, said that despite their strength and power, the conversation needs to be serious and that concrete political action needs to be taken, otherwise the alternative is a military-technical and military response from Russia.
Russia's calculus over Ukraine is likely to be shaped by the U.S. response, which has become the main flashpoint in East-West relations.
The United States and Ukraine say Russia may be preparing an invasion of its former Soviet neighbour. Russia denies that and says that it is Ukraine's growing relationship with NATO that has caused the standoff to escalate. It compares it to the 1962 Cuban missile https: www.reuters. Com markets rates-bonds russia-says ukraine-could rerun cuban missile crisis - 2021 -- 12 -- 09 crisis when the world came to the brink of nuclear war.
Sergei Ryabkov, the Deputy Foreign Minister, said Moscow had received no response from the United States.
The situation is very difficult, it is acute, it tends to become more complicated, and I think they'll try to make this a slow-moving process, but we need to be urgent, because it tends to become more complicated, he was quoted by RIA as saying.
The Kremlin said it was too early to assess the West's response, but that information from various sources about a readiness to discuss the ideas was positive.
Moscow had a number of options when asked about a Belarusian proposal to host Russian nuclear weapons in the event of similar deployments in its vicinity by the West, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
It is no secret that there are different types of armaments near our borders that could pose a danger, and it would require corresponding steps to be taken to balance the situation. There are all kinds of options here, he said.