JRL NEWSWATCH: “Putin Denies Troop Buildup Near Ukraine Means Russia Wants Conflict” – Wall Street Journal
“Leader accuses West of stoking anti-Russian sentiment in neighboring nation, warns against NATO expansion.”
“… [Putin’s] comments … were a response to claims by the U.S. and Europe that Russia’s massing of tens of thousands of troops on its border with Ukraine is a prelude to an invasion of its smaller neighbor …. Putin has set Ukraine’s proposed [NATO] membership … as a red line …. [H]e accused NATO of cheating Russia in the past with ‘five waves of expansion’ …. [T]he Kremlin presented the U.S. with a set of security guarantees it wants from the West, including a commitment that [NATO] won’t expand further eastward to include Ukraine. Moscow also wants NATO to abandon military activities, including training and exercises, in Ukraine, Georgia and other [former Soviet states] … in the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia. …”