MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Thursday there was room to continue dialogue with the United States, but that it looked clear Russia’s main security demands had not been taken into account by Washington.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would not rush to draw conclusions after the United States formally responded on Wednesday to its proposals for a redrawing of post-Cold War security arrangements in Europe.
Describing tensions on the continent as reminiscent of the Cold War, Peskov said it would take time for Moscow to review the U.S. response.
He said it was in both Moscow and Washington’s interests to continue dialogue, though he said that remarks out of the United States and NATO about Russia’s main demands being unacceptable did not leave a lot of room for optimism.
“Based on what our colleagues said yesterday it’s absolutely clear that on the main categories outlined in those draft documents… we cannot say that our thoughts have been taken into account or that a willingness has been shown to take our concerns into account,” Peskov said.
“But we won’t rush with our assessments,” he said.
In separate comments, Russia’s top diplomat said that there was hope of starting serious dialogue, but only on secondary questions and not on the fundamental ones, Russian news agencies reported.
President Vladimir Putin will decide on Russia’s next steps with regards to the U.S. and NATO written responses that were handed over on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov and Maxim Rodionov; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
