Moscow’s terms

Russia publishes proposal for legally binding security guarantees, demanding NATO abandonment of activity in Ukraine and U.S. military withdraw from post-Soviet world

On Friday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry published two documents asking for legally binding security guarantees: a bilateral treaty with the United States and a multilateral agreement with NATO members. The proposal follows weeks of escalating tensions between Moscow and the West, precipitated by a large build-up of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border. Western analysts say the military maneuvers signal Moscow’s intentions to expand Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while the Kremlin says it is merely responding to Kyiv’s new deployments in the Donbas.

The draft treaty with the United States includes the following proposals:

• Russia and the U.S. shall not use the territory of other countries to prepare or conduct attacks against the other.
• Neither party shall deploy short- or intermediate-range missiles abroad or in areas where these weapons could reach targets inside the other’s territory.
• The U.S. shall not open military bases in the post-Soviet countries that are not already NATO members, use their military infrastructure, or develop military cooperation with these states.
• Neither party shall deploy nuclear weapons abroad, and any such weapons already deployed must be returned. Both parties shall eliminate any infrastructure for deploying nuclear weapons outside their own territories.
• Neither party shall conduct military exercises with scenarios involving the use of nuclear weapons.
• Neither party shall train military or civilian personnel from non-nuclear countries to use nuclear weapons.

The multilateral agreement with NATO members features these proposals:

• NATO shall not expand further east and must commit to excluding Ukrainian membership.
• NATO shall not deploy additional forces or arms outside the borders of its members as of May 1997 (before the alliance started admitting Eastern European countries).
• NATO shall not conduct any military activity in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, or Central Asia.
• Russia and NATO shall not deploy short- or intermediate-range missiles within range of each other’s territories.
• All parties shall not conduct military actions above the brigade threshold inside a border zone to be agreed upon.
• Neither party shall regard the other as an adversary or create threats to the other, and all parties shall commit to settling disputes peacefully, refraining from the use of force.