US and Russia begin security talks in Geneva on January 10th. – Politics
In view of the growing tensions in the Ukraine crisis, Russia and the USA want to negotiate with one another soon. High-level security talks are due to take place in Geneva on January 10; Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov confirmed the dates of the US Presidential Office on Tuesday. Talks between Russia and NATO are to follow in Brussels on January 12th. The next day a meeting is planned with representatives of European countries as well as Russia and the USA, in which the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is to be involved as well as the Ukraine and other former Soviet states.
Russia has gathered tens of thousands of soldiers on the Ukrainian border and is calling for an end to NATO’s eastward expansion, in particular for Ukraine to renounce membership. “When we sit down, Russia can raise its concerns, and we will raise our concerns about Russian activities as well,” said a spokesman for the National Security Council in the US Presidential Office, who did not want to be named Reuters agency. “There will be areas in which we can move forward and areas in which we disagree. That is what diplomacy is about.”
The US believes Putin is considering invading. He denies – and threatens
The stationing of large Russian troops near Ukraine has raised fears in the West that Moscow might launch an attack. In 2014 Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and supported fighting in eastern Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied plans to attack. But it could not go into more detail if the Russian security requirements were not met. Putin accuses the West of rearming Ukraine and demands guarantees that NATO will not expand further east and that no offensive weapons are stationed in Ukraine or other neighboring countries.
The US government assumes that Putin is drawing on an invasion of what was once the Soviet republic. Washington announced quickly and comprehensively that this would be the case. US President Joe Biden signed an extensive budget bill on Monday that also provides for $ 300 million for an initiative to support the Ukrainian armed forces and billions more for defense efforts in Europe.
In the meantime, the Bundeswehr has announced that Germany and Lithuania are planning to build permanent barracks for the deployment of the NATO battle group in the Baltic country. Soldiers from the multinational association with Lithuanian units should be housed there, confirmed the operational command in Schwielowsee near Potsdam. The plant should be built near the city of Rukla. So far, planning costs have been in the single-digit millions for the specified project, said a spokesman at the request of the German Press Agency. Lithuania and Germany are to jointly pay for the project. The total costs cannot yet be quantified. In response to the annexation of the Crimean peninsula, NATO stepped up the security of its eastern flank. Joint combat units were stationed in the Baltic States and Poland as part of an “increased presence in front”. THEY are exchanged every six months, also because the NATO-Russia Founding Act does not permit the permanent stationing of Allied troops in Eastern Europe.
As a so-called framework nation in Lithuania, Germany provides around half of the 1200 NATO soldiers there. The battle group at Rukla is currently spread over two locations. Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht visited dying German soldiers on her first mission to Rukla before Christmas.