Kremlin rejects ‘NATO withdrawal’ request claim — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

The Kremlin has rejected a senior Romanian official’s claim that Russia demanded to a US delegation during talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday that NATO withdraws from Eastern Europe.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded on Friday to the allegation by the Romanian president’s chief of staff and adviser for defense and national security, Cristian Diaconescu, who made the claim to the Antena3 broadcaster on Wednesday, as reported by the Financial Times.

Suggestions about the reported Russian demand are “not true,” Peskov stated. He stressed that Moscow’s concerns regarding “NATO’s military infrastructure having inched toward our borders as part of several waves” is “no secret to anyone.”

Diaconescu reportedly alleged that while Trump’s emissaries rejected the purported demand, “the situation can change from hour to hour or from day to day” and Washington could eventually cave in.

The FT also quoted an anonymous “senior official from the region” admitting they are “not sure what is seeping through to Trump…”

“So the risk and concern remains that Russia tricks DC into something via a push on Ukraine,” the source told the newspaper.

Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz stated on Wednesday that the “withdrawal of US troops is a scenario that Poland is not considering”.

Following a phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Moscow and Washington held talks in Saudi Arabia to work toward normalizing bilateral relations to “take each other’s interests into account.” The Kremlin has since suggested that Putin and Trump could meet in person by the end of the month.