Russia has reportedly put forward a series of sweeping demands that could significantly alter Europe's security architecture, including asking Finland
to withdraw from NATO and seeking a ban on NATO military bases in the Baltic states, according to a report by German newspaper Bild. The proposals were reportedly floated by Moscow's negotiators during talks in Abu Dhabi this week and shared informally with European representatives. Citing sources familiar with the discussions, Bild said the demands envision what it described as a "new European security order", stretching from the Black Sea to Russia's border with Finland. Under the proposed framework, NATO would be barred from maintaining military bases in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, while Finland would be required to leave the alliance and revert to its pre-membership status. It remains unclear whether Russian President Vladimir Putin has personally approved or endorsed the version. The report added that multiple groups of intermediaries, including individuals linked to the Russian military, are competing to put forward their own proposals.
What Russia has proposed
According to the German newspaper, Moscow would keep all Ukrainian territory it currently occupies and take control of the entire Donbas region. Ukraine would have to surrender the parts of Donetsk and Luhansk still held by Kyiv.
Vladimir Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation, had already said after the talks that every inch of “Russian land” would be returned “one way or another,” and that Moscow saw no possibility of territorial exchanges.
The ports of Odesa and Mykolaiv would be demilitarized and barred from use as naval bases, the paper said. Separate arrangements would guarantee freedom of navigation in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea.
Ukraine would have to remain permanently non-aligned and abandon its bid to join NATO, while the possibility of European Union membership would be left open.
In return, the Russian side offered to withdraw nuclear weapons from Belarus and refrain from deploying intermediate-range missiles there. Accounts of the report also said Moscow offered to pull its troops out of Transnistria.
No official in Helsinki, the Baltic capitals, NATO headquarters, Moscow or Kyiv has publicly confirmed or denied the account.
