TSAMTO, December 28. On December 27, the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General Alexander Fomin, held a briefing for military attaches and representatives of embassies of foreign states accredited in Moscow.
According to the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in his speech, the deputy head of the Russian military department voiced assessments of the state and nature of cooperation between the Russian Federation and NATO over the past two decades.
As Alexander Fomin noted, the current deplorable state of relations between Russia and NATO can be explained by the fact that the alliance often resorted to using "hybrid methods" to contain Russia, combining dialogue with increased military preparations.
"In recent years, the emphasis has been on military deterrence, while earlier more attention was paid to cooperation projects of interest to the alliance," said the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation.
He added that after the end of the cold war, the Russian Federation has repeatedly made attempts to find new forms of interaction with NATO, to create a stable, equal system of European security for all.
"It would be wrong to believe that the deterioration of Russia-NATO relations began in 2014. The stated goals of equal cooperation by the alliance were not fulfilled much earlier, in fact, immediately after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Despite the fact that Russia was then unprecedentedly open to constructive partnership with the West and conducted a voluntary demilitarization of the country on its western borders. The withdrawal of groups of troops from the Warsaw Pact countries, unprecedented in scale and timing, has also been carried out," the deputy head of the Russian military department stressed.
The full text of the speech of the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General Alexander Fomin, is posted on the website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
