Interfax: Ukraine tensions, NATO expansion pose threat to Russia – security official

(Interfax – Moscow, April 21, 2014) The situation in Ukraine, the deployment of a missile defence system by the USA and the expansion of NATO are increasing the number of threats to Russia’s security, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, has said.

“The scale of challenges and threats is expanding steadily. Today we are especially concerned about the deployment of the US missile defence system near the Russian territory and about the expansion of the NATO bloc,” Patrushev said at a session of the scientific council under the Russian Security Council in Moscow on Monday [21 April].

“The dramatic events of the contemporary history involving Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Middle Eastern and Northern African states, and the escalation of tensions in Ukraine, are disturbing. These events have put many states on the brink of collapse an d have led to rampant terrorism and extremism in the immediate vicinity of our borders,” Patrushev said

“Under these circumstances, the search for a consensus between the leading global centres of power within a multipolar system of international relations is becoming more relevant,” Patrushev said.