Russia informally demands NATO bases be removed from the Baltics and Finland leave the alliance
German daily Bild reports that Russia floated demands for a new European security order during informal talks in Abu Dhabi, including the removal of NATO bases in the Baltic states. The proposals remain unofficial, and it is unclear whether Putin has endorsed them.
Russia has set out proposals for a new European security arrangement in informal talks, ones that would also directly affect Latvia. According to the German newspaper Bild, which cited its own sources on Friday, Moscow wants NATO, the military alliance of the United States and European countries, to give up its military bases in the Baltic states and wants Finland to leave the alliance. Russian representatives reportedly outlined these ideas to European diplomats during talks in Abu Dhabi.
Demands concerning Ukraine and Moldova
Bild reports that Moscow also demands control over the occupied Ukrainian territories and the whole of Donbas, including the parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that Ukraine still holds. Russia wants Ukraine to remain neutral and renounce NATO membership, though it would not object to Ukraine eventually joining the European Union.
The proposal also provides for demilitarising the ports of Odesa and Mykolaiv and for an agreement on free navigation in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. In addition, Moscow suggests turning Moldova into a federal state and giving Transnistria and Gagauzia the right to hold independence referendums if Moldova decided to join the EU.
What Russia offers in return
In exchange, Russia is said to be ready to remove nuclear weapons from Belarus and to forgo deploying intermediate-range missiles there. Moscow also promises to withdraw its troops from Transnistria.
Unofficial nature of the proposals
Bild stresses that for now these are only informal proposals discussed behind the scenes. The trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi involved representatives of the United States, Russia and Ukraine, while European diplomats were not at the table. Several competing groups of intermediaries are currently active, and it is not known whether Russian President Vladimir Putin has endorsed this particular plan at all.
