Moscow. October 19. INTERFAX - By suspending the work of the permanent mission of the Russian Federation to NATO, Moscow de jure formalized the actual state of relations with the Alliance, the decision was necessary and inevitable, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"If we talk about the situation as a whole, the state of affairs is de facto formalized de jure - that's how it can be described: there were actually no relations, there was no dialogue," Peskov said.
According to him, on the contrary, "NATO declared its intention to restrain Russia in every possible way, backed up these words with concrete actions."
"The last straw - the expulsion of our diplomats who worked in Brussels - all this made it necessary and inevitable to bring the de facto situation to a de jure state," Peskov said.
He noted that Russia "will not suffer from the decision taken."
"We didn't have any dialogue with NATO anyway, and if necessary, as the Russian Foreign Minister has already explained, the Russian ambassador in Brussels will be able to answer all relevant questions," Peskov said, adding that "it used to be like this: the functions of maintaining dialogue lay with our office in Brussels."
