Russia needs lasting legal security guarantees from U.S., NATO - Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW. Feb 25 (Interfax) - Russia needs lasting legally-binding guarantees of security from the United States and NATO, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

"Mere talk about security is not enough for us, we need lasting legal guarantees from the U.S. and its NATO allies, taking into account what we've seen and heard even lately, in the past few months," she said.

Commenting on a cancelled meeting between the Russian and French foreign ministers, which was planned originally for February 25 in Paris, Zakharova said, "All responsibility for the disruption of negotiations certainly rests with the French side."

"It should be pointed out that France demonstratively refused to continue dialogue with us amid yet another round of hysterics around our country fomented by representatives of the collective West. All of this clearly demonstrated their inability to maintain a mutually respectful conversation, including on the most sensitive items on the agenda, on which stability of Europe and the whole world depends," she said.