Moscow. October 18. INTERFAX - NATO is a non-negotiable partner, and its actions against the permanent mission of the Russian Federation to the alliance are treacherous, said Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev.
"Talking about "interaction" in words and at the same time curtailing the main channel of communication with Russia in practice means only one thing: for internal use, they utter loud words about NATO's most sincere desire for dialogue with Russia, but in practice they reduce the possibilities of such a dialogue to zero. We have to state that in the person of Brussels we are dealing with a non-negotiable partner, which is objectively very bad for everyone," Kosachev wrote on his Facebook page.
According to him, even in the worst times it is better to have dialogue platforms with the participation of experts and the military.
"But the trouble with NATO is that the alliance, in principle, cannot maintain relations with anyone on an equal footing, in the intoxication of its power. "We are strong, so we are right" - this is the real motive of the alliance's actions, and it does not involve compromises or taking into account someone's interests, including, by the way, the interests of citizens of NATO member countries," the senator said.
This is how he commented on the information about Moscow's response to the actions of the alliance: the suspension of the work of the Russian permanent Mission to NATO and the NATO Military Liaison Mission in Moscow, as well as the complete cessation of the activities of the NATO information bureau in Moscow.
Kosachev recalled that on October 6, the NATO secretariat officially notified 8 employees of the Russian permanent mission to NATO about the withdrawal of accreditation and ordered to reduce the total number of the diplomatic mission to 10 people.
"The rationale for this step bordered on madness: Stoltenberg (NATO Secretary General, - "IF") said that the expulsion of eight Russians was not even "connected with any specific event." Simply, "we are witnessing the rise of malicious activity on the part of Russia, and therefore we need to be vigilant." And in general, in the alliance, they say, they feel that diplomats performed tasks that do not correspond to their status," the senator noted.
