Россия-НАТО

Today, relations between Russia and NATO are in the most serious crisis since the end of the Cold War. The course to deter Russia adopted by the Alliance at its Wales Summit in September 2014 under the pretext of the events in Ukraine is ever more taking the shape of a long-term military planning.

The Alliance consistently continues to build up its military presence and to boost its military infrastructure in East European and Baltic States. There has been a significant increase in the number and intensity of military exercises of NATO and its Member States, which includes the movement of additional troops and heavy equipment to regions adjacent to Russia. Work is underway to establish forward command and headquarters units. The Pentagon has announced its plans for forward storage of military equipment in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic region. Navy forces patrolling the Baltic Sea have been reinforced. The number of entries of NATO ships, especially those of the United States, to the Black Sea has increased. The reinforced group of NATO aircraft continues to patrol the Baltic countries' airspace. A missile defence system has been deployed in Romania. A similar system is to be put into operation in Poland in 2018.

Naturally, such military preparations by NATO cannot go without our adequate response. Whereas the Alliance ignores the common sense that it is absolutely useless to project power against Russia and that the reincorporation of certain elements of the Russia containment strategy into NATO's agenda and the desire to make them irreversible only distract the attention and resources of its Member States from countering real, rather than fictitious, challenges.

The launched process of Montenegro’s accession to NATO has confirmed once again that the Alliance consistently pursues the policy of expanding its geopolitical space, artificially dividing States into friends and foes and creating its own safe havens and prejudicing the safety and security of others.

NATO's unilateral decision to suspend practical military and civilian cooperation with Russia remains in effect.

All those actions are fraught with potentially destabilizing effects for regional as well as Euro-Atlantic security at large.

The current negative trends are not Russia's choice. We remain convinced that there is flatly no meaningful alternative to broad and mutually beneficial pan‑European security cooperation on the solid basis of international law.

Despite the unfriendly moves against us, Russia is not going to get involved in senseless confrontation which is actively imposed on us. Our policy continues to be based on the assumption that all States and organizations of the Euro-Atlantic region have common strategic objectives, such as maintaining peace and stability, and addressing common security threats, including international terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, drug trafficking, and piracy.

Our position remains unchanged: the Russian Federation is ready to develop relations with NATO on the basis of equality in order to strengthen common security in the Euro-Atlantic region. The depth and substance of such relations will depend on the reciprocal willingness of the Alliance to give due consideration to Russia's legitimate interests.