R&I – FS
MOSCOW — Russia on Thursday sharply raised the stakes in a showdown with the West over Ukraine, with a top diplomat saying he wouldn’t exclude a Russian military deployment to Cuba and Venezuela if tensions with the United States mount.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who led the Russian delegation in Monday’s talks with the United States in Geneva, said in televised remarks that he would neither confirm nor exclude the possibility that Russia could send military assets to Cuba and Venezuela.
The negotiations in Geneva and Wednesday’s NATO-Russia meeting in Vienna failed to narrow the gap on Moscow’s security demands amid a buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine. While Moscow demanded a halt to NATO expansion, Washington and its allies firmly rejected them as a nonstarter.
Enterprise7
Article URL : https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/kremlin-deplores-lack-progress-talks-west-82240819