via ZeroHedge

A fresh report in Financial Times has revealed that during US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, Moscow demanded that NATO and American forces are withdrawn from eastern Europe as a condition for “normalizing relations.”

Sources in Romania’s government revealed the request, which was rejected by the team led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But NATO countries along the alliance’s so-called Eastern flank are still worried: “Cristian Diaconescu, the Romanian president’s chief of staff and adviser for defense and national security, said on Wednesday that the US delegation had rejected Moscow’s demand, but that there were no guarantees that Washington would not eventually make this concession to Vladimir Putin,” FT reports.

This concern was expressed to FT as follows:

“As far as I understand, the situation can change from hour to hour or from day to day,” Diaconescu told Antena3 television, in a reference to US President Donald Trump’s scathing criticism of the Ukrainian leader and his concessions made to Russia even before talks began.
Diaconescu stressed that the Russian delegation to the talks in Riyadh earlier this week “failed to convince the Americans” on a Nato withdrawal and that further visits by the leaders of the UK and France to Washington next week would seek to persuade Trump not to give in to this demand.

No real details on specifically what the Russians requested as a condition for fully restoring and improving US relations has been revealed by the US side. However, staff at each of their respective embassies are being restored. Read more.