Interfax: Russian envoy slams NATO for playing “destructive role” in Ukraine crisis

(Interfax – July 29, 2015)

NATO’s role in the Ukraine crisis is “utterly destructive”, Russia’s permanent representative at the organization, Aleksandr Grushko, has said, as reported by privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax on 29 July.

“NATO’s role in the Ukraine crisis is utterly destructive. NATO does not act like an organization that would conduce to the peaceful settlement of the issue. It creates an illusion of permissiveness and this is a very dangerous route,” Grushko said, as shown on the Twitter page of Russia’s NATO mission. (http://twishort.com/hGFic)

“Any political game around NATO’s extension towards Georgia and Ukraine could lead to gravest and most far-reaching consequences for the whole Europe,” Grushko said.

“The crisis in Ukraine was used to bring NATO to its roots in order to demonstrate to Western European countries, first of all, that the alliance is still significant and tackles security issues,” Grushko said.

“NATO has frozen all joint constructive cooperation with the Russian side and has virtually begun setting up a new ‘iron curtain’ in Europe,” Grushko said.

“NATO exists with an illusion that it is possible to establish a world with a single security centre, that everything that is favourable to NATO should be acceptable to everyone else,” Grushko said.

“This is impossible. Sensible people can understand that there will not be any NATO-centred world,” Grushko said.