Russia's central demands – binding guarantees to halt the eastward expansion of NATO, particularly in Ukraine, and to prevent offensive weapons from being stationed near its borders – have been publicly dismissed by the U.S government as non-starters.
The constant expansion of NATO has led to what the scholar Richard Sakwa calls a "fateful geographical paradox": NATO, Sakwa says, now "exists to manage the risks created by its existence."
The standard narrative of the origins of the current Ukraine crisis, as the New York Times recently claimed, is that Ukrainians revolted in street protests that ousted "pro-Russian leader" Viktor Yanukovych, "prompting [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to order the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and instigate a separatist war in eastern Ukraine." In reality, the US backed a coup that overthrew Ukraine's elected government and sabotaged opportunities to avoid further conflict.