Russia is demanding that the United States agree to “legal guarantees” not to expand NATO and not to deploy intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Europe. Absent that, Vladimir Putin implies that war may follow.

Putin is now demanding “agreements that exclude any further NATO moves to the east and the deployment of weapons threatening Russia in close proximity to its territory.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov echoed this call in a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Sweden on Thursday. He explained that if such an agreement is not reached, Russia will take “retaliatory measures to correct the military-strategic balance.”