RUSSIA’S WISH LIST OF SECURITY GUARANTEES

The demands form a package that Moscow says is an essential requirement for lowering tensions in Europe and defusing a crisis over Ukraine.

Key points of Moscow’s proposals 

1. To rule out further NATO expansion and Ukraine’s accession to the alliance
2. Not to deploy additional troops and weapons outside the countries in which they were in May 1997 (before any Eastern European countries joined the alliance) – except in exceptional cases with the consent of Russia and NATO members
3. To abandon any NATO military activities in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia
4. Not to deploy intermediate and shorter-range missiles where they can hit the territory of the other side
5. Not to conduct exercises with more than one military brigade in an agreed border zone, and to regularly exchange information about military exercises
6. To confirm that the parties do not consider each other as adversaries, and agree to resolve all disputes peacefully and refrain from the use of force
7. To commit not to create conditions that might be perceived as a threat by the other party
8. To create hotlines for emergency contacts.

Russia views the security of its frontiers as essential for the security of the homeland. In Moscow’s view, security can be ensured only if Russia maintains a reliable sphere of influence over bordering countries. President Putin is determined to compel Europe to revisit the spheres of influence formula, with Russia gaining in the process a key vote on the Continent’s security and economic issues going forward.

Russia’s military buildup along Ukraine’s borders is President Putin’s unequivocal message to the United States and its European allies that Moscow is determined to use all political, economic, and military means at its disposal to carve out an undisputed sphere of influence reconstituted around the Eastern Slavic core of the former Russian empire. For Putin, this neo-imperial domain will serve as the unquestioned sphere of Russian domination, with the rest of Europe transformed into a space where Moscow’s interests and priorities must be always considered. In this design, the United States and its allies would have to accept that NATO would never enlarge further East.

As the Ukrainian crisis continues to unfold, one should bear in mind at all times that President Putin’s overarching objective is not only to regather the old Russian Eastern Slavic imperial core but most importantly to compel the West to recognize de facto if not de jure Moscow’s sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.