A senior Russian diplomat warned on Thursday that a Russian military deployment to Cuba and Venezuela can’t be excluded if tensions with the United States mount.
By Yahoo News
Jan 13, 2022
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who led the Russian delegation in Monday’s talks in Geneva, said in remarks televised Thursday that he would neither confirm nor exclude the possibility that Russia could put its military infrastructure in Cuba and Venezuela. The negotiations in Geneva and Wednesday’s NATO-Russia meeting in Vienna failed to narrow the gap on Moscow’s security demands amid a buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine.
Speaking in an interview with Russian RTVI TV broadcast, Ryabkov noted that “it all depends on the action by our U.S. counterparts,” noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia could take military-technical measures if the U.S. acts to provoke Russia and raise military pressure on it.
MOSCOW (AP) – The Kremlin on Thursday said it deplored the lack of progress in talks on Moscow’s demand for security guarantees against NATO’s eastward expansion and strongly rebuffed Western calls for a pullback of Russian troops from areas near Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also warned of a complete rupture U.S.-Russian relations if proposed sanctions targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top civilian and military leaders are adopted. The measures, proposed by Senate Democrats, would also target leading leading Russian financial institutions if Moscow sends troops into Ukraine.
Russia and the West took uncompromising stands during the talks this week to discuss the tensions over Ukraine. While Moscow demanded a halt to NATO expansion, Washington and its allies firmly rejected them as a nonstarter.
Monday’s Russia-U.S. talks in Geneva and Wednesday’s Russia-NATO meeting in Brussels failed to narrow the gap, although the parties left the possibility open for future talks on arms control and ways to prevent military incidents between Russia and the West.
Peskov noted “some positive elements and nuances” during the talks, but noted stark disagreements on Russia’s key demands.
“The talks were initiated to receive specific answers to concrete principal issues that were raised, and disagreements remained on those principal issues, which is bad,” he said in a conference call with reporters.
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