Interfax: Russia Criticizes Statements on Eastern Threats to NATO

MOSCOW. Nov 15 (Interfax) – The Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed surprise about the statements made by some Polish and Baltic countries leaders saying that the NATO training Steadfast Jazz 2013 indicates the allies’ readiness to defend the Eastern European countries from threats from the East.

“Is it really appropriate to speak seriously about any threats of attack against NATO countries in this region now? Such scenarios are not only absurd, they also send the wrong signal to public opinion, generating a search for the enemy in the traditions of the Cold War,” the Foreign Ministry’s information and press department said in a commentary posted on the ministry’s website.

“We are surprised by the provocative calls made in this context for reconsidering the non-bloc status of Ukraine or create a military resistance potential in the Arctic,” the document says.

“In our view, such statements clearly contradict the goal to create a common peace, security and stability space set at the summit of the NATO-Russia Council in Lisbon in 2010,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in his commentary. The commentary also states that “the attempts to drag NATO into the past at all costs contradict the common tasks to react to real, not imagined, threats and challenges to the security of our countries.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry also said that “such statements essentially reflect the purpose of the NATO training Steadfast Jazz 2013 conducted on the territories of Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania on November 2-9. “It included elements of providing assistance to a NATO country under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. We understand that the military need to conduct trainings and exercises to maintain their combat preparedness. It’s normal practice,” the commentary says.

[featured image is file photo]