Russia has never threatened NATO, nor does it threaten the alliance now, but it demands respect for its legitimate security interests, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Wednesday, TASS reports.
“Russia has never threatened the alliance. Nor does it threaten NATO now. At the same time, Russia cannot but react to NATO’s confrontational policies. For this reason, Moscow demanded security guarantees that would rule out NATO’s expansion eastwards or the deployment of attack systems in the neighboring countries, as well as the restoration of the alliance’s configuration to the condition of 1997, when the Russia-NATO Founding Act was signed,” Zakharova said.
She stressed that Moscow saw NATO’s buildup in Eastern Europe as a provocation aimed at Russia’s containment.
“The buildup of the alliance’s forces on the eastern flank - in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria - is outspokenly provocative and by no means helps strengthen European security. Obviously, Russia’s containment is the alliance’s main mission again. In recent days the alliance built up the strength of its multinational battalion level groups in Eastern Europe and the number of aircraft patrolling the air space,” Zakharova said.
She recalled that at the March 4 urgent meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers it was declared that NATO was deploying more than 130 planes and 200 ships on the eastern flank.
"All this is being done on the pretext of an alleged threat to NATO from Russia," Zakharova said.