Russia is keeping the possibility of deploying troops to the Western Hemisphere open as tensions with the United States remain at a boiling point.
By Washington Examiner – Mike Brest
Jan 13, 2022
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who led the Russian delegation in Monday’s talks with the U.S. in Switzerland, said he would “neither confirm nor exclude” the possibility of Russian troops deploying to Cuba and Venezuela, according to the Associated Press.
The two adversarial nations met earlier this week in an attempt to resolve the heightened tensions over Russia’s military buildup near the Ukrainian border and the threat of a possible invasion. Russia, in turn, wants NATO to stay out of Ukraine and other nations formerly part of the Soviet Union, though both sides have balked at the other’s demands.
“It all depends on the action by our U.S. counterparts,” Ryabkov said during an interview with Russian RTVI TV.
This was the first time in the current dust-up that a Russian official brought up the possibility of Russian troops heading to the Western Hemisphere.
“The U.S. wants to conduct a dialogue on some elements of the security situation … to ease the tensions and then continue the process of geopolitical and military development of the new territories, coming closer to Moscow,” he explained. “We have nowhere to retreat.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Thursday that the Defense Department is “focused on trying to find a way forward in de-escalation of this particular crisis that Russia has caused” when asked about Ryabkov’s remark about troop deployments close to the continental U.S.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that Western powers vow to exclude from NATO Ukraine and other countries that gained independence from the Soviet Union and curtail the military support offered to NATO allies in Eastern Europe.
“There was no commitment to de-escalation, no,” Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who led the U.S. delegation to meet Russian officials in Geneva and then in Brussels, told reporters earlier this week. “There was no commitment to de-escalate, nor was there a statement that there would not be.”
Alternatively, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that “the continuation of NATO’s open-door policy and the further advancement of NATO towards our borders is precisely what, from our point of view, threatens us. This is exactly what we are asking not to continue through legally binding guarantees.”
Read More: Washington Examiner – Russia warns about possible military deployments to Western Hemisphere
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