Russia says it is willing to negotiate security guarantees for “that country now called Ukraine” | International
The Kremlin awaits the imminent arrival of Donald Trump to the White House. This Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov offered some clues about the directions of his country’s future negotiations with the United States in his annual press conference. President Vladimir Putin would agree to discuss with Trump some guarantees for the territory of Ukraine that does not remain occupied, but only if this country is disarmed and if the agreements contemplate “the Eurasian context.” In return, Lavrov does not take a bad view of Greenland or Panama, with which he has made a simile with Crimea, decide to be part of the United States.
“The threats from our western borders – in Moscow’s language: a Ukraine with a capable army – must be eliminated,” Lavrov stressed before offering a compensation within “a broader agreement.”
“We are ready to discuss security guarantees for that country that is now called Ukraine, or for a part of that country that has not yet been defined, unlike Crimea, Donbas (region of eastern Ukraine) and Novorossiya (historical-administrative concept Russian from the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine in the Russian Empire),” the diplomat declared, making a final reference to the areas that his army partially controls and that were included as part of Russia in the Constitution in 2022.
Lavrov has not been displeased by Trump’s expansionist ambitions, and has even compared his desire to annex Greenland to Moscow’s illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014. “I think we should first listen to the Greenlanders just like us.” “Being neighbors of other lands, we listen to the inhabitants of Crimea, Donbas and Novorossiya,” said the diplomat, who criticized the Maidan protests in Ukraine of 2014 as “a coup d’état.”
Trump asserted on January 7 that Greenland and Panama should be part of the United States to protect them from China and Russia, although to do so he must take them through economic or military pressure. Greenland, which enjoys great autonomy from Denmark, could hold a self-determination referendum in the future.
Lavrov recalled during his speech that the right of nations to free self-determination is enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. “The largest State is obliged not to oppose or hinder this fact. Not like the Spanish did with Catalonia or like what happens with Scotland,” the Foreign Minister emphasized.
Punishment of separatism
This defense of the right to self-determination comes a day after the Russian Government declared the newspaper a terrorist organization. Komi Dailya newspaper that advocates the independence of Russia’s Komi region. Furthermore, in 2016 the Kremlin approved a law that punishes anyone who publicly defends a split of its own territory with imprisonment.
The diplomat also addressed the issue of Western Sahara and offered his help to Morocco, “a friendly country,” although he recalled at the same time that the UN Security Council “declared many years ago that the problem must be resolved with the self-determination of the Sahrawi people.” “Trump decreed in his first term that Western Sahara belongs to Morocco. Solving these problems unilaterally only sows a storm,” Lavrov warned.
The veteran diplomat emphasized during his speech that the talks with Trump about NATO will be linked to the “Eurasian context.” “The issues of Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Far East, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea should be decided by the countries of the region and not by Stoltenberg (NATO Secretary General until last October),” who says that They are going to act there because their safety depends on it,” Lavrov pointed out.
The Russian Foreign Minister has not hidden his relief at Joe Biden’s departure. “Russia expects the Trump Administration to formulate strategies for international problems; “Biden left a difficult legacy,” said the senior official. Despite everything, he has assured that the future US Government has not expressed “any concrete proposal” at the moment to resolve the issue of Ukraine.
Likewise, Lavrov has accused the current US Government of “putting a spanner in the works” for Trump before handing over the baton. The minister cited as examples the latest aid shipments to Ukraine and “the pressure on Serbia” to dispense with Russian capital in its hydrocarbon companies.
