West's Reply to Russia's Security Proposals Lacks Substance, Moscow Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said the West's response to Russia's security proposals was "an answer for the sake of an answer," and NATO countries were evading the conversation about non-divisibility of security.

"I would say that those papers are just an answer for the sake of an answer. It's just a couple of paragraphs, three at most. Our opponents are evading this conversation, and they are evading openly, even brazenly in some aspects," Ryabkov said.

Earlier this month, Russia received the West's written response to its proposals on regional security that were outlined by the Kremlin in late 2021 in order to de-escalate tensions with NATO over Ukraine.

Commenting on the response, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the West had ignored the three key proposals that are: stopping NATO's expansion, refusing to use strike weapons systems near Russian borders, and returning the bloc's military infrastructure in Europe to how it was in 1997.

Also, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month that the US had deliberately avoided discussing the principle of indivisibility of security which says that no country should strengthen its security at the expense of the security of other countries. "Neither the Istanbul nor the Astana declarations are mentioned by our Western partners in the discussions on European security that are currently taking place … We cannot accept this," Lavrov said.