Moscow. February 18. INTERFAX - Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused NATO of using "escalation for de-escalation" tactics against Russia and strengthening its military presence near the Russian borders, but confirmed Moscow's desire to continue negotiations on security guarantees.
The comment of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry on the results of the NATO Council meeting at the level of defense ministers on February 16-17 in Brussels is posted on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
It notes that the participants of the NATO Council meeting at the level of defense ministers accused Russia of continuing to build up its military presence, not only "around" Ukraine, but also in Belarus. "At the same time, NATO members clearly do not follow the news - after the exercises, Russian troops are already returning to their permanent locations," the commentary says.
The alliance intends to "punish" us for this by an additional build-up of forces on the "eastern flank", the deployment of new naval and air components, the expansion of cooperation with Georgia and Ukraine, for which the door to NATO still "remains open," the commentary says.
It says that "once again, NATO is using the tactics of "escalation for the sake of de-escalation." "Historical experience shows that after reducing tensions, the alliance never reduces its military presence. Judging by the fact that detailed plans for new NATO multinational battalion groups on the "eastern flank" will be developed only by the next, May meeting of the defense Ministries of the bloc countries, NATO's military capabilities near the Russian borders will only increase in the future," the commentary says.
"The military-political situation in Europe continues to deteriorate. The Russian proposals on security guarantees are aimed at correcting this situation, to which we have not received a clear answer from the alliance. We hope that negotiations on them will continue," the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a comment.
