Putin selects Geneva as a possible place to settle the security deal

Russia wants security guarantees from the West as soon as possible. “That will determine how we will act in the future”, threatened President Vladimir Putin in his traditional end-of-Year speech on Thursday.

In any case, the Russian president wants to get rid of Western interference in the border regions. “The US is already on our doorstep and we want the West to withdraw. We also want a guarantee that they will not send more troops”, says Putin, who thinks the ball is in the US and that Russia does not need to issue security guarantees.

Tensions between the West, with the United States leading the way, and Russia have been growing considerably lately. This mainly concerns the border region near Ukraine. The US fears a Russian invasion of Ukraine and Russia wants NATO, including the US, to stop military activities in the region around Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

Russia wants to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. Putin is afraid that the Western influence of the US in particular will become too great in the country. “Since 1990, NATO has cheated several times and failed to honour agreements with us. We are seeing more and more NATO troops on our border.”

On the other hand, the US is seeing more and more Russian troops on the border with Ukraine. According to documents from American intelligence agencies, more than 70,000 troops are already ready to invade Ukraine. This number could be increased to 175,000 by the beginning of 2022. American president Joe Biden has threatened with severe economic sanctions if Russia invaded Ukraine.

‘We can talk to the US in Geneva in early 2022’

In the end-of-Year speech, the Russian president said he would like to talk with the US to resolve the tense situation in Ukraine. Under the condition that the West gives Russia security guarantees and does not demand it from Russia. “We are also asking the US not to install missiles at our border and no, that is not an excessive request.”According to the Russian president, the US is ready to talk about the security guarantees in early 2022 in Gen Aromatherve.

Putin also announced that Russia will cooperate with China in the area of arms development. The Asian country also has no good relationship with the US and is on good terms with Russia. Recently, Chinese president Xi Jinping said that China and Russia should more often work together to safeguard each other’s security interests. Joint development of high-tech weapons is then a first step.

Dorian Vogt is the founder of WeeklyNewsReview project and prolific author of many articles here and beyond. His experience is in guiding others is hard to overestimate. His main interests is Zürich city topics. You can't find anyone more in the know about the local news.