[RIA Novosti] Negotiations between Russia and NATO on security guarantees continue both in open and closed regimes, Vladimir Putin said.
"We are preparing a response to both NATO and Washington," Putin said after talks with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev .
In recent months, relations between Russia and the West have become even more tense, and the situation around Ukraine has worsened. Washington and Brussels accuse Moscow of preparing an "invasion", declaring that Russian troops are being pulled up to the border with a neighboring state. Against this background, the North Atlantic Alliance is strengthening its presence in Eastern Europe : it is sending additional forces and military contingents there.
The Kremlin denies these allegations and claims they are a pretext for increasing the bloc's military presence near Russia's borders.
At the end of last year, Russia handed over to NATO and the United States draft documents on security guarantees, the main requirement was the non-expansion of the alliance to the east, but it was its Western partners, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, that they ignored in their written response.