This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
What is important is that Putin got through to Biden on that Dec. 30 telephone call which Putin had called for with some urgency (and which was widely neglected in the Establishment media.) Hours later, the official Kremlin readout included: The presidents agreed to personally supervise these negotiating tracks, especially bilateral, with a focus on reaching results quickly. In this context, Joseph Biden emphasised that Russia and the US shared a special responsibility for ensuring stability in Europe and the whole world and that Washington had no intention of deploying offensive strike weapons in Ukraine. [Emphasis added.]
At the same time as the Kremlin readout, Putin's main adviser on these issues, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that Moscow was pleased with the Biden-Putin conversation on Dec. 30, adding that Biden's pledge not to deploy offensive arms in Ukraine amounted to acknowledgment of Russia's security concerns. Speaking to Russian media, Ushakov pointed out that this was also one of the goals Moscow hopes to achieve with its proposals for security guarantees to the US and NATO.
Ushakov, actually, is understating the case. The US non-deployment-of-offensive-missiles pledge addresses a key issue embedded in no fewer than five of the eight Articles of the Russian draft treaty on security guarantees. In contrast, only Article 4, which includes: "The United States of America shall undertake to prevent further eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and deny accession to the Alliance to the States of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics", addresses head-on the NATO expansion issue.
Back to the Putin Video
The 12-minute video includes subtitles in English courtesy of translator "Inessa S." Putin was speaking to reporters attending the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, 2016. I have taken Inessa's subtitles and strung them together below into a full text for those who prefer to read rather than watch.
Putin to Western Reporters, June 17, 2016
Your people, in turn, do not feel a sense of the impending danger - this is what worries me.
Now, about the missile defense system, listen to me, we are all adults at this table, and experienced [professionals] at that.
But I am not even going to hope that you are going to relay everything, exactly how I said it, in your publications.
Neither will you attempt to influence your media outlets.
I just want to tell you this, on a personal level
I must remind you, though you already know this, that major global conflicts have been avoided in the past few decades, due to the geostrategic balance of power, which used to exist.
The two super-nuclear powers essentially agreed to stop producing both offensive weaponry, as well as defensive weaponry.
It is simple how it works - where one side becomes dominant in their military potential, they are more likely to want to be the first to be able to use such power.
This is the absolute linchpin to international security. The anti-missile defense system [as previously prohibited in international law], and all of the surrounding agreements that used to exist.
It's not in my nature to scold someone - but when the United States unilaterally withdrew from the ABM Treaty of 1972 they delivered a colossal blow to the entire system of international security.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
