Russia Suggests Defense power Deployment to Venezuela, Cuba if Tensions With U.S. Stay High

“I don’t are attempting to verify anything, I isn’t going to rule out anything…. Is dependent upon the actions of our American colleagues,” Mr. Ryabkov told privately owned Russian-language tv community RTVi in an interview Thursday in Moscow. Mr. Ryabkov said he observed no quick grounds for unique talks with the U.S., after various rounds of negotiations this week yielded tiny growth in defusing the crisis in Ukraine.

In Washington later, White Dwelling nationwide security adviser Jake Sullivan said U.S. and European officers would confer in the impending days, nevertheless that no dates were pickle for further discussions with Russia.

“I’m not going to answer to bluster in the general public commentary that wasn’t raised in the discussions on the Strategic Steadiness Dialogue,” Mr. Sullivan said of Mr. Ryabkov’s remarks about a doubtless deployment in Latin The United States, referring to talks Monday between U.S. and Russian officers in Geneva.

“If Russia were to plug in that course, we would take care of it decisively,” he said.

The remarks from the senior U.S. and Russian officers alter to various rounds of talks this week between the West and Russia over the military buildup on the border with Ukraine. Moscow has despatched extra than 100,000 troops there, claiming the troops are on a military disclose. That has brought about fears in Ukraine and the West that Russian President

Vladimir Putin

intends to invade Ukraine or is producing a crisis to true security concessions from the North Atlantic Treaty Group.

Russia is aggravating a extinguish to NATO’s growth, particularly into Ukraine; curtailment of the alliance’s ties with Ukraine and facets of the worn Soviet Union; and restrictions on military deployments on the territory of the alliance’s Japanese European people.

Western officers accept as true with rejected those calls for, announcing international locations are free to affiliate with any international locations they retract.

On Thursday, the Group for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a 57-country grouping that helped to foster peace all the design thru the Chilly Battle since its founding in the 1970s, talked about the Ukraine assert. The talks followed a U.S.-Russia meeting in Geneva on Monday and a NATO-Russia gathering in Brussels on Wednesday.

The OSCE is the handiest security-focused dialogue board whereby primarily the main avid gamers in the unusual crisis—Russia, Ukraine, the U.S. and the Europeans—all accept as true with a seat on the desk. That permits Washington to inform Ukraine in on discussions about it. The U.S. has promised not to procure choices on Ukraine’s security with out Kyiv’s presence.

Russia’s representative to the OSCE, Alexander Lukashevich, said that this week’s discussions had been “undoubtedly disappointing,” with the U.S., NATO and rather a few OSCE international locations not offering the “very gargantuan, in-depth” response to Russia’s proposals that Moscow had expected.

Russia’s international minister,

Sergei Lavrov,

said Thursday that Moscow used to be attempting ahead to the U.S. and NATO to answer in writing to the Russian security proposals soon. “We still hope that the promises made in Geneva and Brussels might be saved; this is the promise to position U.S. and NATO proposals on paper,” he said.

The three rounds of talks failed to solve the crisis, and with prospects for further talks unsure, Mr. Sullivan reiterated that the U.S. and its European allies had supplied Russia two paths ahead: Further diplomacy or contrast.

The Biden administration is captivating to talk about limits on intermediate-vary missiles in Europe, as wisely as reciprocal restrictions on the scope of military workout routines on the continent, U.S. officers accept as true with said. But when Russia sends troops across the Ukrainian border, Western officers are eyeing valuable monetary punishments and focused abilities sanctions, per americans conscious of the matter.

“The United States and our European allies and companions are captivating for a pair of rather a few eventualities,” Mr. Sullivan said Thursday. These are “severe and substantive” talks on the negotiating desk or a “determined, effective, forceful” response to Russian aggression.

“We’re ready both manner,” he said.

Whereas Russia has insisted it has no plans to invade Ukraine, Mr. Sullivan said Thursday “the threat of military invasion is excessive,” and that the U.S. held no illusions about the aptitude for war.

Requested to clarify the de-escalation that U.S. officers are seeking, Mr. Sullivan said that “it could well involve them reducing the sequence of forces that they accept as true with deployed in aggressive postures in opposition to Ukraine.”

Mr. Sullivan warned that the plug of the Russian military across the border into Ukrainian territory would trigger a U.S. and world response.

The nationwide security adviser said that in the next 24 hours, the administration would provide further tiny print on Russia’s purported efforts to assign a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine.

“We observed this playbook in 2014,” Mr. Sullivan said, referring to Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and fomenting of a separatist war in eastern Ukraine. “They are preparing this playbook again.”

Mr. Ryabkov’s warnings about a doubtless military deployment to Cuba and Venezuela reflected Moscow’s longtime impact in those two international locations, where authoritarian regimes accept as true with prolonged been shut to Russia.

Cuba used to be a Chilly Battle partner to the Soviet Union, and in Venezuela, Mr. Putin has chanced on an ally that has eagerly bought Russian military hardware, including Sukhoi fighter planes, whereas deploying Russian military advisers and technicians.

The deputy international minister’s feedback were seen as a threat by Venezuela’s opposition plug, which failed in unusual years to oust the president, Nicolás Maduro, partly attributable to Russia’s assistance.

In a speech, the opposition leader

Juan Guaidó,

whom the U.S. considers Venezuela’s rightful president, said the Russians accept as true with out a correct to deploy in Venezuela, “because it’s a sovereign country that ought to mediate over its land, its actions and its protection.”

Mr. Guaidó added: “Does Russia are attempting to procure us part of a war that’s not even Latin American or procure political propaganda with the soundness of the gap, of Latin The United States?”

The Cuban authorities hasn’t commented on Russia’s doubtless dedication of troops to the island. Requests for comment despatched to the Cuban mission in Washington and to Cuba’s International Ministry weren’t straight away answered.

Turmoil in Russian markets intensified on Thursday, with the ruble shedding as noteworthy as 2.6% in opposition to the buck and trading at 76.5 rubles to $1. Russian shares and bonds also came below stress.

“The market has with out warning long gone from ignoring this to taking it very severely,” said

Paul McNamara,

an rising-market debt fund manager at GAM.

—Anna Hirtenstein, Juan Forero and José de Córdoba contributed to this text.

Corrections & Amplifications

Alexander Lukashevich is Russia’s representative to the OSCE. An earlier version of this text incorrectly spelled his ultimate establish as Lukashevic. An earlier version of this text also incorrectly spelled the ultimate establish of Sergei Ryabkov in two instances as Rybakov. (Corrected on Jan. 13)

Write to Ann M. Simmons at ann.simmons@wsj.com, Courtney McBride at courtney.mcbride@wsj.com and Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com