In a June 6, 2016 interview with the Russian TV Channel, Rossiya-24, Russia's permanent representative to NATO, Aleksander Grushko, said that NATO policy inhabits a surrealistic reality that believes in the "myth" that Russia poses a threat to NATO. NATO exploits this myth to pursue its militaristic strategy.
Below are excerpts from the interview with Grushko:[1]
Russia's
Permanent Representative to NATO Aleksander Grushko. Source: Missiontonato.ru
"What we are seeing today in the Baltic states, as a matter of fact, is nothing but attempts towards force development [in line] with the hostile policy pursued by NATO in the recent time. I would not say that it is a direct threat for Russia but, nevertheless, it obviously creates serious risks as we see an absolutely new military reality forming along our border.
"Recently the [NATO] secretary general [Jens Stoltenberg] visited Poland, and during these visits the Polish side was making statements that now Russia knows that an attack against Poland is an attack against NATO, which is completely absurd, as they are discussing a problem that does not exist. There are no plans to attack Poland.
NATO
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Polish President Andrzej Duda met on May
30, 2016 in Warsaw to discuss preparations for the Warsaw Summit. (Source:
Nato.int, May 30, 2016)
"The policy [of NATO] lives in [a] surrealistic reality, and the most dangerous thing is that it now starts taking the shape of military planning and military preparations carried out on territories along our borders.
"We know that additional measures on buildup on the eastern flank are [being] prepared for the [upcoming NATO] summit [in Warsaw].
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"A Russian threat to NATO is simply a myth, which gives a possibility to pursue the policy that NATO pursues, and at the same time to solve other tasks of strategic nature.
"NATO is seen as an additional band to fix unity of the West.
"If we take a look at regional balances, NATO is playing there some unclear game, as if the NATO countries themselves are some states having no army, having nothing [and are therefore not calculated in the regional balance]...
"All these games of NATO's fearfulness, they must end sooner or later, as it is difficult to live all the time in the smoke of an ideological campaign built on nothing.
"I see no signs that NATO is going to change its position [towards Russia].
"The prospects are extremely complicated.
"Partly, it is linked to the fact that NATO has given up all the previous programs and projects of cooperation [with Russia]...I do not see any signs that NATO may change its stance.
"At present, we can see that NATO is trying to offer some measures to Moscow but, in our view, they are absolutely inadequate to what NATO is doing. If NATO could give up its military planning, which is hostile to Russia, we could hold more serious negotiations on how to jointly improve our common European security space.
"We are no less concerned over bilateral programs implemented by certain NATO countries. In particular, they keep training Ukrainian special forces, Ukrainian armed forces...And we see that these trained forces are moving closer to the conflict zone. This fuels escalation and plays into the hands of the party of war, fueling revanchist sentiments".
Endnote:
[1] Missiontonato.ru, June 7, 2016.
