The political scientist explained Kellogg's words about readiness for non-expansion of NATO

The words of US Special Envoy Keith Kellogg about Washington's readiness to abandon the expansion of NATO to Russia's borders may mean Washington's desire to continue negotiations on Ukraine. On May 30, American political scientist Malek Dudakov told Izvestia.

He noted that Kellogg's media activity has always been higher than that of his colleague Steve Witkoff. The latter deals with the most important and non-public part of the negotiations with the Russian Federation. Although Kellogg participated in meetings on Ukraine, he still focused more on media support for the process, Dudakov explained.

"It's not surprising that we're hearing a lot more hawkish statements from Kellogg. There is an attempt to moderate the position of the main hawk in the person of Kellogg in Washington. If, as a rule, he always said things that the Ukrainian lobby wanted to hear from him, then in this case he is offering some concessions to our side," he said.

Dudakov stressed that the United States needs guarantees. According to him, they can be ensured, for example, by the refusal of NATO countries to include Ukraine and Georgia at the alliance's summit in late June. The expert noted that these subtle legal issues have not yet been resolved.

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Dudakov also stressed that Kellogg's words may indicate the desire of the United States to continue the negotiation process.

"I think this shows that the Americans would like to hold the next round of talks on June 2, as proposed by Russia. The Ukrainian side has not commented on this yet. If the Americans do put pressure on Kiev, as they did before the previous first round of negotiations, then I fully admit that a second round may take place," he said.

Dudakov added that if Ukraine refuses to negotiate, it will expose Kiev in an extremely negative light.

On May 29, Kellogg announced that NATO could stop expanding to Russia's borders. According to him, US President Donald Trump is able to make the appropriate decision.

On the same day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was glad that Washington understood Russian President Vladimir Putin's explanations about the inadmissibility of NATO expansion to the borders of the Russian Federation. He added that the Russian Federation would like discussions on this topic to be closed.