RIA Novosti: Russia-NATO Dialogue Would Be Hard to Resuscitate: Moscow

MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) – It would be extremely difficult to revive constructive dialogue between Russia and NATO as bilateral relations have deteriorated to a great extent this year, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

“The atmosphere [of bilateral cooperation] that has been respected by the alliance for a long time has dissipated in a blink of an eye. It would be extremely difficult to revive this atmosphere, to resuscitate the dialogue,” spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told a news briefing in Moscow.

“We have never considered NATO as our enemy, which is reaffirmed by many documents. But it was the Alliance that has called Russia a threat to security to its member-countries,” Lukashevich said adding that this premise was a highlight of the recent NATO summit in Wales.

“Russia will certainly take this stance in consideration while revising its military planning,” the diplomat stressed.

Relations between Russia and NATO have been strained since the alliance accused Russia of meddling in the Ukrainian situation, a claim that Russia has repeatedly denied. Following Crimea’s reunification with Russia in March 2014, NATO boosted its military presence close to Russia’s border, specifically in Poland and the former Soviet Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

In April, the 28-member state bloc froze its cooperation with Russia, only maintaining contacts at the ambassadorial and higher levels.

Earlier on Monday, NATO’s new secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO did not approve of Russia’s actions in Ukraine and Crimea’s reunification with Russia. However, he stated that the violations do not affect NATO’s attempts and hopes to improve its relations with Moscow.

[featured image is file photo from past event]