RIA Novosti: Senior MPs against rushing to cancel agreement on NATO forces in Russia

NATO meeting file photo

(RIA Novosti – Moscow, October 8, 2014) Russia has been ready for a long time to denounce the agreement on the stay of troops of NATO member states on the territory of the Russian Federation but one should not hurry with this, the chairman of the Russian State Duma defence committee, Vladimir Komoyedov, has said.

After NATO took upon itself the command of the forces in Afghanistan, Russia in 2004 signed with the alliance an agreement on the status of forces (troops) on the territory of the Russian Federation, which in 2007 was approved by the State Duma.

According to Komoyedov, NATO is continuing military enlargement to the east to the borders of Russia and it is obvious that it tries to surround Russia with its military bases. As using sanctions against Russia came to the agenda, it would be the right time for the country to withdraw from the agreement, the expert said.

“We have been ready for a long time to denounce this agreement but one should certainly not hurry with this. We can get out of this thing any time. What one needs is for a favourable situation to emerge under the belly of our country, in Afghanistan. ‘There are too many mouths to stop,’ as the Russian proverb says,” Komoyedov told RIA Novosti.

“They are in essence a stone’s throw away from our capital and from our vital facilities. We did not foresee this kind of movements in any way, we certainly did not want them and will not want them,” he said. [passage omitted]

[Komoyedov’s position was echoed by first deputy head of the ruling One Russia faction in the State Duma, Frants Klintsevich, who said that there was no rush with withdrawing from the agreement. In a later report, RIA Novosti quoted him as saying that “the tension is quite high as it is, we should not rush into anything. We will have plenty of time to cancel it”. He noted that one should not escalate the tension. “Economic sanctions is one thing but provoking some kind of military things and untying hands in this respect is a different matter, here one has to do everything very carefully and thoughtfully,” Klintsevich said. He suggested that in this kind of matter it is necessary to be careful from the political point of view, the agency said.]

 

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