"It's quite obvious that Finland and Sweden joining NATO ... would have serious military and political consequences that would require an adequate response from the Russian side," she pointed out.
The policy of not being part of any alliances, traditionally pursued by Stockholm and Helsinki, is viewed by Moscow as "an important factor in ensuring stability in northern Europe," Zakharova added.
At his annual year-end press conference on Thursday, the Russian president slammed Washington and its NATO allies for talking about "Russian aggression" while surrounding Moscow with offensive missile systems and carrying out several waves of expansion toward Russia's borders. "You cheated us shamelessly," Putin said.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov adds:
The US and its allies have pinned Russia into a position from which it has nowhere to fall back to, President Vladimir Putin has said."I have spoken about the 'red lines' which we believe should not be crossed. I want everyone to understand - here in our country and abroad, so that our partners understand: the issue isn't about the line which we don't want someone to cross. The issue is that we have nowhere to fall back to. They [NATO] have squeezed us against such a line, pardon the expression, that we can't move around," Putin said, speaking in an interview with the Rossiya 1 television channel on Sunday."I have already said - they'll put missile systems in Ukraine, 4-5 minutes flight time to Moscow. Where can we move? They have simply driven us to such a state that we have to tell them: stop. That's the whole point," the Russian leader added.
Putin expressed hope that the Russian people, the Ukrainian people, the people of Europe and the United States understood the essence of the security proposals sent by Moscow to Washington and NATO, and publicised by the Foreign Ministry last week.
Putin admitted that the open publication of the proposals was unusual, and "not a very common way to conduct talks," but said that Moscow decided to act as it did due to its concerns that NATO could stall negotiations while pumping Ukraine full of modern weapons."They will chat endlessly, speak endlessly about the need to negotiate, and do nothing, except pumping up our neighbour with modern weapons systems, and increase the threat to Russia, with which we will then be forced to somehow deal with, somehow live," the president said.Therefore, Putin noted, "our proposal is open and understandable."
"It puts all the participants of the [negotiation] process within a certain framework. But for us there is only one goal - to reach agreements which would ensure - both for today and over the long term, the security of Russia and its citizens," he said.
A recent launch of the Russian Zircon hypersonic missile may make Russia's diplomatic notes to the West "more convincing," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday."
Well, let's hope that notes become more convincing this way," Peskov told Rossiya 1 when asked about the launch.The Kremlin spokesman also said that it was President Putin who came up with the idea of security guarantees that were recently proposed to the West.
"This is...the initiative of a president, who is capable of a comprehensive analysis of the situation," Peskov said.A negotiation on security guarantees that Russia offered to the United States will show whether the latter is interested in resolving mutual concerns effectively or protracting the process indefinitely, he added."These talks will immediately demonstrate if the Americans are ready to give a substantive answer or prefer to stall the process and try initiating years-long perennial negotiations," the spokesman said, adding "the Russian side absolutely will not put up" with the second option.He said that Russia needs a "quick and specific" decision on security guarantees that would meet the country's interests.
"I would maintain cautious optimism right now and put hope on the consultations that we are waiting for," Peskov said.
Another escalation of the civil war in Ukraine's eastern region of Donbass would be unacceptable for Russia as it will be taking place near the Russian border, Peskov explained."We are told to take de-escalation measures, but no one tells the same to Ukraine. No one calls out to Ukraine to say that another escalation of the civil war would be unacceptable and that it would be absolutely unacceptable for us because it will be right next to our borders. And after all, Russian people live there whose fate our country cannot ignore," the Kremlin spokesman said.He slammed the Western countries for being biased in their stances on the eastern Ukraine conflict.
Accusations leveled by some Western officials against Russia over allegedly halting gas transit to Western Europe to push the approval of Nord Stream 2 are false, Gazprom said on Saturday.Europe is being pressured not to approve the pipeline, because the U.S. want to continue selling its more expensive LNG to it.
"All accusations alleging that we undersupply gas to the European market are absolutely baseless, unacceptable and inconsistent with reality," the company's spokesman, Sergey Kupriyanov, told journalists, adding that all such statements are nothing but "lies."
The heated statement came in response to accusations leveled against Moscow by some Western officials earlier this week. Gazprom's Yamal-Europe pipeline, which brings gas from Russia to Germany through Poland and Belarus, saw shipments halted.
The development prompted some politicians to assume that Russia is playing politics and pushing for the approval of its recently built Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which is yet to be passed by the German regulator. Fully constructed in September, the pipeline has faced vehement opposition from Poland and Ukraine - two transit nations bypassed by the Baltic Sea pipeline, which stand to lose billions of dollars in annual revenues - as well as the US.
Berlin recently said it would decide the project's fate on a non-political basis.
The Russian gas giant said it simply fulfilled all its existing contractual obligations and did not receive any new supply requests from the relevant European nations, like Germany and France. The company supplied 50.2 billion cubic meters of gas to Germany alone this year, Kupriyanov said, adding that it was 5.3 billion cubic meters more than last year.
Gazprom also fulfilled all its obligations related to gas supplies through the Ukrainian gas transport network as early as on December 15 but still continues to transport gas through Ukraine's territory.
"All the problems were created by Western Europe itself," Kupriyanov said, adding that one should "look in the mirror" instead of "placing the blame on Gazprom." The spokesman also said that the company is ready to supply additional volumes of gas within the existing contract framework.
On Friday, the New York-based financial news media outlet Bloomberg reported that a halt in deliveries was not due to some malicious schemes in Moscow but because of the fact that Gazprom's western buyers had hit their contractual limits for 2021.
Europe saw gas prices skyrocketing this autumn, sparking fears of an energy crisis and leading to initial accusations against Moscow. This week, gas prices rose about 20% again, prompting another wave of heated rhetoric from the West.
Comment: Indeed, it has become a common tactic by politicians in the West pushing the BBB/WEF agenda to rush through bills, hundreds to thousands of pages long and covering a vast array of topics, often during busy or chaotic periods, in the knowledge that those few remaining representatives that do care will have little time to read through, debate and amend the legislation. Legislation that is intended to cause particularly dramatic and insidious changes to life as we know it:
- Biden adds $3.5 trillion BBB agenda onto US debt limit increase, urges GOP to 'just get out of the way'
- UK govt stuffs "stunningly draconian" anti-protest powers into new 'policing' bill, rushes it through parliament
- Denmark's order to cull 17 million mink was ILLEGAL, agriculture minister resigns, new law rushed through
- Surprise: British govt to keep emergency powers and continue some lockdown restrictions
- French MPs finally pass draconian 'global security law' that allows 'broad surveillance of the population'
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