Russia wants NATO forces to leave Romania, Bulgaria - foreign ministry

Authored by reuters.com and submitted by TheEvilGhost
image for Russia wants NATO forces to leave Romania, Bulgaria - foreign ministry

A NATO flag is seen ahead of a summit in Brussels, Belgium, July 10, 2018. REUTERS/Reinhard Krause

MOSCOW, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The security guarantees that Russia seeks from the West include provisions requiring NATO forces to leave Romania and Bulgaria, the Russian foreign ministry said on Friday.

Moscow has demanded legally binding guarantees from NATO that the bloc will stop its expansion and return to its 1997 borders.

Replying to a question about what that would mean for Bulgaria and Romania, which joined NATO after 1997, the ministry said Russia wanted all foreign troops, weapons and other military hardware withdrawn from those countries.

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Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Alex Richardson

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Anomuumi on January 21st, 2022 at 09:25 UTC »

Russia wants to create a divide between what they see as their buffer countries and the EU. There is no way EU or NATO will let them do this. Both Romania and Bulgaria are in the EU and NATO, so this is obviously just a play. They know this will never happen. If any concessions are made on any nation's sovereignty we might as well put our hands up and let Kremlin tell everyone what to do.

bcmonke on January 21st, 2022 at 09:23 UTC »

They're NATO members, won't happen

TrueRignak on January 21st, 2022 at 09:21 UTC »

It's crazy how they keep asking for more after being denied they previous demands.