Russia has dusted off a list of demands it made just before invading Ukraine, and it is pushing them again in talks with President Trump’s envoys. At the top of the list is a call for NATO to pull its forces back to where they stood in 1997. Moscow appears to be aiming for a bigger win after five years of war and hundreds of thousands of deaths.
\n\nThe demands first surfaced in December 2021, about two months ahead of the invasion in early 2022. In some places, the new version repeats the old one word for word.
\n\nThe latest version is laid out in a paper Russian officials passed around this week. It is dated Nov. 10. Two people involved in the talks, speaking anonymously with the New York Times, because the discussions are sensitive, described its contents.
\n\nAmong the demands is that NATO withdraw forces from its eastern flank in Poland and the Baltic states. That moves the future of European security to the center of the Ukraine negotiations.
\n\nRussian officials also pointed to the Cold War as a model. They described the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact era, when Europe was divided into American and Soviet zones of influence…
Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/latest-news
