NATO Should Halt Its Expansion Drive, Russia Says

March 9, 2013 • 10:20AM

Reviewing the work of the NATO-Russia council and looking into the rest of 2013, Russia's Ambassador to the Western alliance, Alexander Grushko, told Voice of Russia radio today:

"We think that the expansion project has fully exhausted itself. Actually, it doesn't solve any security problems but just creates more dividing lines and unnecessary political tensions in Europe. Also, we see that the alliance's military machine is approaching Russia's borders, and it's a factor we have to take into account while planning our defense strategy. And we will take every political and military measure to neutralize those threats."

In March 2013, NATO is entering a new phase, which implies that, in line with the decisions made at the Chicago summit, NATO is no longer an operational alliance with a clearly-defined defense agenda, but one for the "accumulation of potentials" with an interventionist mission. Alexander Grushko believes that "much will depend on whether NATO will be able to integrate itself into collective security-building efforts or, as has often happened before, will attempt to impose unilateral solutions and sidestep international law."

At a meeting in Novosibirsk, yesterday, President Vladimir Putin urged his colleagues to use the present period for the upgrading and modernization of Russia's defense capabilities at all levels, because if one waited, neither the funds which are still there now, nor the political commitment, might be there when needed.