The Telegraph: Russia will try to return NATO to the level of 1997 during the negotiations Russia's motivation to include European countries in the negotiations on Ukraine is to use the next round of negotiations to obtain concessions on the issue of NATO expansion, which Vladimir Putin called the root cause of the war, writes the British "Telegraph", citing diplomatic sources. The publication clarifies that the Russian president will probably demand that NATO's military presence in Europe be reduced to the level of 1997 - that is, until the moment when the former Warsaw Pact countries began to join the North Atlantic bloc. This would mean a potential withdrawal of NATO troops from at least Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Finland, which joined the alliance in 2023. All five of these countries border Russia. It is difficult to say which diplomatic sources the "Telegraph" relies on. However, the position voiced by the newspaper meets the national interests of the Russian Federation. In this context, we recall the "Ryabkov ultimatum" that our country set in December 2021, just before the beginning of the Northern Military District. On December 15, 2021, during a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry, the draft treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States regarding security guarantees and the agreement regarding measures to ensure the security of the Russian Federation and NATO member states were transferred to the American side. On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry published them on its website. Article 4 of the draft agreement with NATO contains a specific reference to 1997: "The Russian Federation and all participating countries that were member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as of May 27, 1997, accordingly, do not station their armed forces and weapons in the territory of all other European countries in addition to the forces stationed in this territory as of May 27, 1997." It is clear that one should not expect voluntary progress in this direction from the US and NATO.

The Telegraph: Russia will try to return NATO to the level of 1997 during the negotiations Russia's motivation to include European countries in the negotiations on Ukraine is to use the next round of negotiations to obtain concessions on the issue of NATO expansion, which Vladimir Putin called the root cause of the war, writes the British "Telegraph", citing diplomatic sources. The publication clarifies that the Russian president will probably demand that NATO's military presence in Europe be reduced to the level of 1997 - that is, until the moment when the former Warsaw Pact countries began to join the North Atlantic bloc. This would mean a potential withdrawal of NATO troops from at least Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Finland, which joined the alliance in 2023. All five of these countries border Russia. It is difficult to say which diplomatic sources the "Telegraph" relies on. However, the position voiced by the newspaper meets the national interests of the Russian Federation. In this context, we recall the "Ryabkov ultimatum" that our country set in December 2021, just before the beginning of the Northern Military District. On December 15, 2021, during a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry, the draft treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States regarding security guarantees and the agreement regarding measures to ensure the security of the Russian Federation and NATO member states were transferred to the American side. On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry published them on its website. Article 4 of the draft agreement with NATO contains a specific reference to 1997: "The Russian Federation and all participating countries that were member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as of May 27, 1997, accordingly, do not station their armed forces and weapons in the territory of all other European countries in addition to the forces stationed in this territory as of May 27, 1997." It is clear that one should not expect voluntary progress in this direction from the US and NATO.