U.S. offers missile site inspections to Russia

Moscow ready for discussions despite impasse

Moscow said Thursday that it was ready for “serious conversations” about Washington’s proposals to defuse the Ukraine crisis, which are understood to include an invitation for Russia to inspect U.S. missile bases in Europe.

The U.S. and NATO formally rejected Moscow’s demand this week that Ukraine never be allowed to join the transatlantic alliance, as more than 125,000 Russian troops massed on the country’s border.

In a letter hand-delivered by the ambassador to Moscow, Washington proposed other areas of co-operation.

These include reviving arms control treaties, limiting military exercises, and granting Moscow long-demanded access to a number of NATO sites in Europe, sources told U.S. media.

Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said there was scope to discuss “secondary issues” but regretted the lack of movement on Moscow’s key demands that Ukraine be barred from NATO and the U.S. withdraw NATO troops from eastern Europe.

“As far as this document goes, there is a reaction that allows us to hope for a start of a serious discussion but on secondary issues,” he said. “There is no positive reaction to the main issue.”

Separately, a foreign ministry spokesman described war with Ukraine as “unthinkable” and said Russia hoped for progress in a forthcoming round of talks aimed at resolving the conflict in the Donbass region. Russian markets and the ruble rose on the news.

“There is a scope for dialogue,” Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, said as he indicated that Washington’s rejection of Russia’s key demands would not immediately trigger a military response.

Putin would analyze the response in full before any further move, Peskov said, adding: “It would be foolish to expect (an answer) as early as next week.” The content of the letter has not officially been made public.

Inspections of missile bases in Poland and Romania could assuage the Kremlin’s fears that the missiles might be targeting Russia, not Iran as the U.S. has claimed. The proposal, if agreed, would provide Russia with access to NATO sites that it has been demanding for years.

“Russia will become one step closer to the status of guarantor of European security that Moscow has sought for almost three decades,” Pavel Luzin, an independent military analyst, said.

However, it remained to be seen whether Poland and Romania would allow Russian military inspectors at their sites, he said.