Website of Russian Foreign Ministry Down as Response to US on Security Proposals Released

Moscow earlier handed over its response to the new security proposals to the US envoy in Russia. Washington previously rejected key proposals offered by the Kremlin, but agreed to discuss arms control treaties and limits on war games in Europe.

The website of the Russian Foreign Ministry went down soon after Moscow's response to the US on security proposals was published there. As of 14:50 GMT, the website showed "page unavailable" when attempting to load it.

The website restored services several hours later, with the ministry suspecting low-quality work by technical services as the reason for its malfunction.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov justified the decision to publish the 11-page response in order to prevent public opinion from being spammed with "lies and outright propaganda".

Russia's Response to US on Security Proposals

In its written response, Moscow underscored that the US failed to give constructive feedback to Russia's key security proposals. These included NATO's rejection of accepting Ukraine as a member, pulling the alliance’s troops in Europe back to the 1997 lines, and mutual non-deployment of offensive weapons near Russia’s borders.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also pointed to the US ignoring the Kremlin's proposal to withdraw all American nuclear weapons stationed in foreign countries and return them to US soil.

"[The US] limited their response to mentioning the need to deal with the issue of non-strategic nuclear weapons as a part of the strategic dialogue without taking into account the peculiarities of their deployment and other factors affecting the security of the involved parties".

The response also contained criticism of US violations of the principle of indivisible security by creating preferential conditions for itself and its NATO allies in Europe at the expense of Russia's security.

Moscow noted Washington's readiness to discuss issues it has long ignored or refused to talk about – mitigating risks of war and arms control. The Foreign Ministry noted, however, that Russia is only one ready to discuss these issues in combination with a key provision – NATO not taking new steps that are detrimental to Russia's security.