German Lawmaker Says Russia Rightfully Demands NATO Ban Ukraine From Joining Alliance

BERLIN (Sputnik) - German lawmaker and politician for the Alternative for Germany party, Steffen Kotre, said on Wednesday that Russia has the right to demand that NATO ban Ukraine from joining the alliance.

Earlier in the day, Russia and the alliance sat down for talks for the first time since 2019.

"It is good that they are talking to each other. [German] Foreign Minister also pointed out that diplomacy plays the key role, and it does. Nevertheless, I think that possible results cannot be visible in the short-term perspective," Kotre said.

"I expect that phased rapprochement will continue and that mutual trust in relations will be gradually restored. Russia, so to say, was seized in the jaws after the end of the Cold War, NATO's expansion eastwards was carried out despite agreements, NATO got closer to Russian borders, the United States established bases everywhere. Russia rightfully gets sick of it and has the right to insist that NATO not receive Ukraine."

The lawmaker added that NATO and US guarantees on non-expansion of the alliance further eastwards "should follow" as Russia has had a "negative experience." He recalled the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Soviet Union abandoned the idea of deploying offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba after the US demanded an end to their "threatening actions."

Russia has presented draft agreements on security guarantees to NATO and the US in December 2021. Some of these guarantees included NATO not expanding eastwards, not deploying short- and intermediate-range missiles capable of reaching each other borders, and the prevention of Ukraine and other former Soviet republics from joining the alliance.