Germany’s foreign minister on Tuesday said that Russia in recent weeks has amassed more than 100,000 troops with guns and tanks near the Ukraine border “without an understandable reason”. “It’s hard not to understand that as a threat,” Annalena Baerbock told reporters during a briefing with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. Diplomatic talks between Moscow and the West in Europe last week failed to resolve stark disagreements over Ukraine and other security matters. The U.S. administration has accused Russia of preparing a “false flag operation” to use as a pretext to invade Ukraine. Russia has angrily denied the charge. Lavrov reaffirmed that Russia expects a written response this week from the United States and its allies to Moscow’s request for binding guarantees that NATO will not embrace Ukraine or any other ex-Soviet nations or station its forces and weapons there. Washington and its allies firmly rejected Moscow’s demands …