Kremlin says US security strategy ‘largely consistent’ with Russian vision

MADRID, December 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Kremlin said Sunday that the United States’ “adjustments” to its national security strategy “are largely consistent with the vision” of Russia, after the document said “some European officials” had “unrealistic expectations” about the war in Ukraine and highlighted restoring strategic relations with Russia as a priority.

“The current (US) administration is fundamentally different from previous ones and, of course, President (Donald) Trump is now firm in terms of internal political positions, which gives him the opportunity to adjust the concept according to his vision,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Thus, he argued in an interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin, of the Rossiya 1 television channel, that “perhaps we can hope” that these “adjustments” represent “a modest guarantee that it will be possible to constructively continue the common work to find at least a peaceful solution to Ukraine.”

In this sense, he stressed that Moscow agreed with the language adopted by Washington on NATO enlargement, although Moscow stressed the need to analyze the situation in practice. “These are statements that go against confrontation and are in favor of dialogue and the establishment of good relations,” he stressed.

“On the one hand, it is hopeful, but on the other, we already know what happens when everything is written very beautifully and conceptually, but what they call the deep state acts differently. We need to closely monitor how this concept is applied,” he concluded about the security strategy, as reported by the Russian news agency Interfax.

The document, released by the White House on Friday, calls for bridging a gap between Europe and Russia which, in Washington’s eyes, is the best example of the “lack of self-esteem” and the threat of “erasure” currently affecting “European civilization”, before pointing out that following the Russian war in Ukraine, European relations with Russia have softened considerably and many Europeans view Russia as an existential threat.

The result of this approach is a “risk of conflict” between Russia and European countries that the United States wants to mitigate through a “rapid cessation of hostilities in Ukraine” to avoid an “escalation of the war.” But he also recommends “restoring strategic stability with Russia” and, ultimately, facilitating “the reconstruction of Ukraine after hostilities to enable its survival as a viable state”.

Regarding NATO, the document states that “in the long term, it is more than plausible that in a few decades at most, some NATO members will be mostly non-European” and advocates “ending the perception and avoiding the reality of NATO as an ever-expanding alliance”, which Moscow has repeatedly criticized.