MOSCOW, January 14 - RIA Novosti. NATO is artificially luring Ukraine and Scandinavian countries into its ranks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"Attempts to artificially expand the composition of the North Atlantic Alliance, to draw Ukraine into it, in particular, do not stop. Quite interesting statements from the NATO leadership have been made recently. From the United States that Scandinavian countries that are not members of the North Atlantic Alliance will also be welcome. That is, such artificial luring, artificial expansion of this structure, which after the Cold War, after the disappearance of the Warsaw Pact, lost the meaning of its existence. Attempts to artificially prolong all this continue," he said at a press conference at the end of the year.
Lavrov called NATO's one-sided interpretation of its non-expansion political commitments "unacceptable and flawed."
On Thursday, the NATO Secretary General said that Sweden and Finland largely comply with the alliance's defense standards, and, in case of their respective political decision, they can quickly join NATO. Prior to that, US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said that the United States is ready to discuss with Finland and Sweden the possibility of their joining NATO if these countries express such an aspiration.
The press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that the Russian Federation does not understand the call to de-escalation against the background of NATO's words about expansion, requests for an increase in the contingent.
