Moscow reiterated its calls for binding security deals with NATO ahead of talks with the United States set for Monday aimed at easing the soaring tensions over Ukraine.
The country needed "guarantees" from the alliance that it won't expand further, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency on Sunday.
Russia's expectations regarding Monday's talks were "realistic," said Ryabkov. "Based on the signals we've heard from Washington and Brussels in recent days, I think it would be naive to assume progress – let alone rapid progress."
"We will not agree to any concession. That is completely excluded," Ryabkov said. "We are disappointed with the signals coming in the last few days from Washington but also from Brussels."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, dismissing Moscow's demands as "gaslighting," has insisted that talks will yield no progress so long as Russia has a "gun to Ukraine's head."
"We're prepared to respond forcefully to further Russian aggression. But a diplomatic solution is still possible and preferable if Russia chooses it," Blinken said Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden in Geneva in June and agreed on regular "stability" talks between U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Ryabkov, who will again lead the Russian delegation.
The talks in Geneva come amid rumblings in the U.S and EU over a potential invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
A meeting of the NATO-Russia Council is also scheduled for Wednesday in Brussels – the first such meeting in two and a half years. This is to be followed on Thursday by talks in Vienna within the framework of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
The United States has accused Russia of building up troops in areas on the border with Ukraine and wants the soldiers pulled back.
Russia denies any plans of invasion. For its part, Moscow has spoken out against the admission of further Eastern European countries to NATO and is demanding guarantees that Ukraine will never become a member of the defense alliance.
Washington has already roundly rejected many proposals made by Moscow to defuse tensions.
In two phone calls to Putin, Biden has warned of severe consequences if Russia invades Ukraine.
Measures under consideration include sanctions on Putin's inner circle, canceling Russia's controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany or, in the most drastic scenario, severing Russia's links to the world's banking system.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned that Washington would also send more troops to eastern NATO members such as Poland and the Baltics if Russia invaded.
Europeans have shown solidarity, with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell visiting the frontline in Ukraine, although some nations are expected to hesitate at the strongest measures.
Russia insists it was deceived after the Cold War and understood that NATO would not expand.
Instead, the U.S.-led alliance accepted most of the former Warsaw Pact nations and the three Baltic nations that were under Soviet rule.
Russia has put intense pressure on neighboring Ukraine since 2014 after a revolution overthrew a government that had sided with the Kremlin against moving closer to Europe.
Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula and backs an insurgency in eastern Ukraine in which more than 13,000 people have died.
At a time when Russia is also intervening to shore up allies facing unrest in Belarus and Kazakhstan, Moscow has insisted it wants concrete progress in talks with Washington.
Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov warned after the call with Biden that the United States would be making a "colossal mistake" if it went ahead with sanctions.
