Lavrov says security talks with Washington will take place after Russian holidays

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says talks between Washington and Moscow to discuss security issues will take place after Russia's holiday season ends and that Russia wants military officials to be included in its negotiations with NATO.

Speaking on the high-profile, pro-Kremlin show Solovyov Live on December 27, Lavrov said: “We will hold a major round of [security] talks with the United States that will take place immediately after the end of the New Year holidays.”

Russia celebrates Orthodox Christmas on January 7, which means the first subsequent working day would fall on January 10.

Lavrov's comments come amid heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington over a massive buildup of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border and demands from the Kremlin for no further NATO expansion, among other "guarantees" of Russian security.

President Vladimir Putin, speaking on December 23 during his annual press conference, urged the West to meet the demands “immediately,” listing a series of grievances about Ukraine and NATO.

Putin said in an interview broadcast on Russian state television on December 26 that he would consider various options if the West fails to meet Moscow’s demands. Russia’s response “could be diverse,” he said, adding: “It will depend on the proposals that our military experts will present to me.”

In his December 27 comments, Lavrov said Russia wants to include military officials in any talks with NATO and criticized the Western security alliance, reiterating Moscow's position that it cannot remain indifferent to perceived NATO aggression on Russia's "doorstep."

“NATO is now a purely geopolitical project to develop a territory that has become ownerless after the disappearance of the Warsaw Pact and the collapse of the Soviet Union,” he said. “That’s what they’re doing.”

Lavrov's comments came a day after the Russian Foreign Ministry acknowledged that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had proposed holding a NATO-Russia Council meeting on January 12. The Kremlin has not yet said whether it will attend.

"We are considering it," a Kremlin spokesman was quoted as saying on December 26, according to TASS.

The format of the meeting and the composition of the Russian delegation are being considered, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said, TASS reported on December 26.

A NATO spokesman was quoted by AFP as saying that the alliance has contacted the Kremlin to secure its participation.

"We are in contact with Russia" about the meeting, said the spokesman, who asked not to be identified.

The NATO-Russia Council was established in 2002, but is currently inactive due to the conflict in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces.

If the meeting takes place on January 12 as Stoltenberg proposed, it would be the council's first meeting in 2 and a half years and would take place on the first day of a two-day meeting of the military chiefs of NATO's 30 member countries in Brussels.

The January 12 meeting is the first proposed by Stoltenberg since Moscow presented draft security documents calling for an end to NATO's eastward expansion and military cooperation with countries such as Ukraine and Georgia, among others.

U.S. officials have said that some of the demands are either unworkable, impossible, or fundamentally contrary to Western values, but the United States has also said it is willing to engage in talks regarding the demands. This includes bilaterally, through NATO, and through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The talks have been proposed against the backdrop of a buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine's borders in a possible start to an invasion. The United States and the European Union have threatened Moscow with severe consequences in the event of a military escalation.

Russia has denied any intention to launch an invasion.

Russia's Defense Ministry announced on December 25 that more than 10,000 troops had completed month-long exercises near Ukraine and that the soldiers involved were returning to their permanent bases.