{"id":47376,"date":"2022-01-11T13:26:22","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T13:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47376"},"modified":"2022-01-11T13:26:22","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T13:26:22","slug":"moscow-nato-ties-approaching-moment-of-truth-russian-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47376","title":{"rendered":"Moscow-NATO ties approaching \u2018moment of truth\u2019: Russian official"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"article__subhead css-1wt8oh6\"><em>Tensions over Ukraine show no sign of abating as diplomatic talks get under way.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"110.87855297158\">\n<p>Moscow has said that ties between Russia and NATO are approaching a \u201cmoment of truth\u201d ahead of high-stakes talks over Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko\u2019s remarks on Tuesday followed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2022\/1\/10\/us-and-russia-still-at-odds-after-ukraine-talks\">negotiations<\/a> a day earlier between Russian and American officials in Geneva which launched a week of diplomacy aimed at easing tensions.<\/p>\n<p>A meeting of the NATO-Russia Council will take place in Brussels on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s no exaggeration to say that a moment of truth is coming in our relations with the alliance,\u201d Grushko was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur expectations are entirely realistic and we hope that this will be a serious, deep conversation on key, fundamental problems of European security,\u201d he added, referring to the talks in Brussels.<\/p>\n<p>Washington and Kyiv say Moscow has deployed an estimated 100,000 troops near the Ukraine border in recent months, eight years after it seized the Crimean peninsula from its neighbour.<\/p>\n<p>The military action has raised fears in Ukraine and US President Joe Biden\u2019s White House of another Russian incursion and led to threats of Western sanctions against Moscow in the event of an attack.<\/p>\n<p>For its part, Moscow denies planning an invasion and is demanding wide-ranging concessions from Washington and its NATO allies, most of which have already been slammed as non-starters by Western powers.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"770\" height=\"434\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-ko7030ydSk?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Grushko said Russia would demand a comprehensive response from the alliance to its proposals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will push for a concrete, substantive, article-by-article reaction to the Russian draft agreement on guarantees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s demands, unveiled in December, are aimed at containing the US and NATO in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, saying that the US-led alliance should not admit Ukraine or Georgia as new members or establish bases in ex-Soviet countries.<\/p>\n<p>After more than seven hours of negotiations in Geneva on Monday, Russian and US officials offered to keep talking, though there was no immediate breakthrough.<\/p>\n<p>Moscow remained sceptical about progress on Tuesday and insisted it would stick to its position \u2013 that it would not allow its demands to become mired in tortuous negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will not be satisfied with the endless dragging out of this process,\u201d Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.<\/p>\n<p>Peskov\u2019s remarks came after Linda-Thomas Greenfield, the US\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations, told Al Jazeera on Monday that she \u201cwished\u201d to believe Russia\u2019s claim that it was not planning to invade Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut everything we have seen so far indicates that they are making motions in that direction,\u201d she said during a press conference at the UN\u2019s headquarters in New York.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they have decided not to move forward, because of our engagement with them over the course of the past few weeks \u2026 then that\u2019s a good thing, but we will continue to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2022\/1\/9\/u-s-open-to-talks-with-russia-on-ukraine-eastern-europe\">prepare and to plan<\/a> for responding should they take any actions against Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday\u2019s talks will be followed by a meeting in Vienna of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"770\" height=\"434\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EZBq3rTK_-0?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tensions over Ukraine show no sign of abating as diplomatic talks get under way.Moscow has said that ties between Russia and NATO are approaching a \u201cmoment of truth\u201d ahead of high-stakes talks over Ukraine. Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko\u2019s remarks on Tuesday followed negotiations a day earlier between Russian and American officials in Geneva which&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}