"Putin has suggested for months that U.S. and allied military activities in Ukraine and near Russia’s borders are crossing a red line for the Kremlin ... Russia needs 'precise legal, judicial guarantees because our Western colleagues have failed to deliver on verbal commitments they made,' Putin said in a speech at the Kremlin this week ... Putin has long railed against NATO expansion into former Warsaw Pact states as a disrespectful encroachment on Moscow. He said a concrete agreement must 'rule out any further eastward expansion of NATO and the deployment of weapons systems posing a threat to us in close proximity to Russia’s territory.' White House press secretary Jen Psaki rejected out of hand the idea that Washington would provide a guarantee that Ukraine will not enter NATO ... In comments this week, Putin said drills with U.S. nuclear-capable strategic bombers flying over the Black Sea posed a threat to Moscow, along with U.S. missile defense systems in Poland and Romania. He also expressed concern about NATO deploying missiles on Ukrainian territory that could have a flight time of seven to 10 minutes to Moscow" https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...e-546b-11ec-8769-2f4ecdf7a2ad_story.html
"Biden dismisses Russia’s ‘red lines’ ... US President Joe Biden has vowed to hold lengthy talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on the issue of Ukraine, but insists he will accept no warnings about 'red lines' from Moscow ... 'I don’t accept anybody’s red lines,' the president added ... On Thursday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry again claimed NATO had given assurances it would not move 'an inch' further east at the end of the Cold War. Despite that pledge, it has continued to expand, encompassing new member states ever closer to Russia’s borders, with Ukraine repeatedly having expressed an interest in joining the bloc in recent years. The ministry stressed that 'the only option for resolving the current situation' would be for NATO to rule out any further such expansion and to stop its ongoing military build-up on Moscow’s doorstep." https://www.rt.com/russia/542180-biden-red-lines-putin/
"Pentagon spokesman John Kirby ... 'We don't envision any US military intervention in this conflict' ... Currently there's talk of an urgent Biden-Putin virtual summit in the works, in order to address the crisis, and where it's expected Putin will press the White House on gaining guarantees of no further eastward NATO expansion." https://www.zerohedge.com/geopoliti...ine-offensive-us-intelligence-now-claims
"The expansion of NATO further eastwards is a red line for Moscow, and Ukraine’s possible accession to the US-led bloc is simply unacceptable, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. In a statement, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned of 'serious negative consequences' if the situation on the border between Russia and Ukraine deteriorates ... According to Zakharova, the US is dragging Kiev into the military orbit of the alliance and turning it into a 'bridgehead' of confrontation with Russia. This could destabilize Europe, she said ... Zakharova believes the alliance is focused on 'fighting imaginary threats.' 'One of the pivotal topics – not for the first time – was Russia and its possible aggression against Ukraine,' she said. 'However, if we look at things realistically, it is NATO that has approached us.'" https://www.rt.com/russia/542080-assurances-nato-expand-east/
"A senior Russian diplomat warned the United States and its NATO allies Friday that their own security would suffer if they 'torpedo' providing Russia with certain military guarantees. Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the West to provide guarantees that would preclude NATO from expanding to Ukraine or deploying troops and weapons there. Putin brought it up during a video call with U.S. President Joe Biden this week. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said during a news conference Friday that while it would be ‘naïve’ to expect to get those security guarantees soon, Moscow remains committed to seeing them made. 'If our opponents on the other side — first and foremost the U.S., but also other countries, allies, the so-called allies of the U.S. — refuse, try to torpedo the whole thing, they will inevitably encounter a further worsening of their own security situation,' Ryabkov said." https://news.yahoo.com/russia-presses-west-guarantees-amid-164243638-000840648.html
"NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday rejected Russian demands to rescind a 2008 commitment to Ukraine that the country would one day become a member of the Western military alliance." https://news.trust.org/item/20211210192039-sgjcm
“Russia has demanded that Nato, America and Britain withdraw all military bases and troops from central and eastern European countries, including those within the EU. The Russian foreign ministry published Moscow’s demands to Nato, the US and allies on ‘security guarantees’ in return for withdrawing a massive troop build-up on Ukraine’s border. Russia’s demand in the form of two draft legal treaties is highly unusual in international diplomacy and is regarded as an ultimatum that threatens the existence of the western alliance and the EU. The draft treaties call on Nato and Washington to halt any enlargement of the alliance eastwards and ‘not to deploy weapons and forces’ where it ‘would be perceived by the other side as a threat to national security’ ... Demands include an incendiary call for all troop deployments in eastern Europe to be rolled back to the levels before 1997, effectively removing Nato protection from all countries that have since joined. ‘Nato and the US must not station any additional military personnel or weapons outside the countries where they were stationed as of May 1997 (prior to the accession to the alliance of Eastern European countries) except in exceptional cases with the consent of Russia,’ said the demands ... Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined Nato in 1999, followed in 2004 by Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania ... Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy minister, warned that relations with Nato and the West were at a ‘dangerous point’ and called for crisis talks with the US tomorrow in Geneva on the demands ... Other demands include a US commitment ‘not to establish military bases in former Soviet countries’ or ‘to develop military co-operation’ with countries that include the EU members Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. Russia is additionally demanding a ban on the deployment of Nato, US and Russian warships and aircraft to ‘areas where they can strike targets on the territory of the other party.’” https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...all-troops-from-eastern-europe-tdklrrvdg https://archive.ph/2021.12.17-173828/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russia-demands-nato-remove-all-troops-from-eastern-europe-tdklrrvdg
Clearly Moscow doesn’t expect NATO to agree to any of these demands. The Russian may be establishing Casus Belli, or may be in pursuit of some lesser goal.
