The military development of the bloc has been redirected in full to prepare for a large-scale, high-intensity armed conflict with Russia, the Russian Deputy Defence Minister said.
This comes at a time when Russian and U.S diplomats are to meet on January 10, 2022, in Geneva talks over the Ukraine crisis.
Speaking during a briefing for military attache’s and other foreign diplomats in Moscow on Monday, Russian Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin accused NATO of readying up for an all-out war with Russia.
The preparation comes with the expansion of the bloc’s military capabilities and is also reflected in NATO’s program documents where Moscow has been unequivocally named as the main source of threats to coalition security, Alexander said.
At the same time, older documents, including the 2002 Rome declaration, establishing that Russia and NATO do not regard each other as adversaries, remain in force, he added.
The relations between Russia and NATO got worse recently after Russia said it was suspending all direct ties with NATO and shutting down its offices in Moscow in response to the expulsion of eight Russian diplomats from Brussels headquarters.
Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said the bilateral channels were used by the bloc for “whipping up propaganda and putting pressure on Russia”.
Earlier Russian President Putin said that U.S and NATO needed to give Russia a legal security binding deal as a guarantee that NATO was not going to expand eastwards.
