NATO’s actions have provoked risks and challenges to Russia’s security interests and frustrated confidence, Anton Mazur, the leader of the Russian delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, said on Tuesday.
“Despite our warnings of counter-productivity and risks of NATO’s eastwards expansion, the borders of the biggest military bloc have nearly reached Russian borders,” the Russian Foreign Ministry quoted him as saying at the annual security review conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). “Works have started in the territory of new members to develop military infrastructure. New formats of military activities have been launched on the ground, in the air and at sea, including a mission on air patrolling and multinational exercises.”
The Russian representative also drew attention to the fact that the creation of NATO missile defense facilities on the basis of the European segment of the US global missile shield “has embarked on a practical track.” “Non-nuclear countries, including those of Eastern Europe, take part in NATO’s nuclear drills,” Mazur said. “The alliance is using confrontational schemes in the Baltic and Black Seas as well.”
“Thus, NATO’s steps provoked risks and challenges to Russia’s security interests even before the current crisis in Russia-NATO relations,” he stressed. “It has seriously undermined trust.”