Putin sees 'positive' US reaction to Russia security proposals

Putin's marathon press conference lasted three hours and 56 minutes

President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Washington's willingness to discuss Russia's security proposals to curb NATO's eastward expansion was "positive", as fears mount in the West over a major military escalation in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has grown increasingly insistent that the West and NATO are encroaching dangerously close to Russia's borders.

Washington responded that it is willing to discuss the security proposals -- within weeks according to a US official -- and Putin said Thursday that Washington is ready for talks at the start of next year in Geneva.

"I hope that this is the first positive reaction."

"There are some issues that Russia has raised that we believe we can discuss," the US official said, though adding there were "others that they know very well we will never agree to". 

He also announced a new arsenal of hypersonic missiles that he has previously described as "invincible" were nearing combat readiness.

Tensions have been building since mid-November when Washington sounded the alarm over a massive Russian troop build-up on Ukraine's border and claimed that Putin is planning an invasion.

The Russia denies the claims and Putin has suggested that the conflict, which has claimed over 13,000 lives, is genocidal.

Putin on Thursday also addressed an unprecedented wave of arrests against voices critical of the Kremlin, saying the crackdown is aimed at curbing foreign influence. 

He added that it was domestic dissent that brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago this month.

The case follows other key trials, including the jailing of Russia's most prominent opposition figure Alexei Navalny and the closure of his anti-corruption and political organisations on extremism convictions.

- Western 'obscurantism' -

It began with pandemic-related questions, including on Russia's low vaccination rate. As of Thursday, only 44 percent of the population had been fully vaccinated, despite several locally made jabs having been available for free since last year.

He also denounced as "unacceptable" a decision by several Western nations led by the United States not to send diplomatic representatives to the Beijing Olympics in February, saying sport should not be tainted by politics. 

"I support the traditional approach that a woman is a woman, and a man is a man," Putin said, adding he hoped that Russians had enough defences "against this obscurantism".

Putin became president on New Year's Eve in 1999, when Russia's first post-Soviet leader Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned and Putin -- who was then prime minister -- took on the role.

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