Sochi. October 19. INTERFAX - Moscow believes that NATO should take the first step to normalize relations with Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"Yes, we proceed from this because we have never started the deterioration of our relations with either NATO or the EU," he told reporters on Tuesday, answering a question whether Moscow believes that it is NATO that should take the first step towards normalization in the current situation.
According to the minister, the history of Moscow's deteriorating relations with the alliance began when the then President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili "gave a criminal order to attack the city of Tskhinval" in 2008. Then, Lavrov recalled, Russia insisted on convening the Russia-NATO Council to consider this situation, but the US Secretary of State (at that time, Condoleezza Rice) categorically refused.
