Medvedev warns of termination of ties with NATO
RUSSIA: President Dmitry Medvedev has warned that Russia could
sever all ties with NATO if necessary, Russian news agencies reported
Monday.
"Cooperation is in the interests of NATO, not Russia," Medvedev said
in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi during a meeting on Monday with
Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's envoy to the alliance.
If NATO is not willing to cooperate with Moscow, "we will take any
decision, up to terminating relations entirely," he was quoted by the
RIA Novosti news agency as saying.
The Russian president said his country "has been trying to develop
relations with the alliance for a rather long time."
"Yet we would like to have a full-scale partnership rather than live
a life of illusion amid the creation of new (military) bases around us
and the involvement of new countries in NATO," the Interfax news agency
quoted him as saying.
Rogozin, for his part, said NATO has taken up a policy of double
standards and "has deviated from the spirit of partnership."
Moscow recalled Rogozin from Brussels "for consultations" after NATO
froze contacts through the Russia-NATO Council in an emergency NATO
foreign ministers' meeting last week.
The Russian Defense Ministry later said it was suspending all
cooperation with the military alliance.
Georgia launched attacks against South Ossetia in an attempt to
regain control of the breakaway region bordering Russia. Moscow
responded by sending in troops, which drove Georgian forces out of the
region and took over parts of Georgian territory.
Russia declared a halt to its military offensive in Georgia on Aug.
12 and has now withdrawn most of its troops from there, but peacekeeping
checkpoints are still in place "to deter further bloodshed".
Both houses of Russia's parliament on Monday approved appeals to the
president to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
the two breakaway regions of Georgia.
Medvedev has not yet reacted to the requests, which are likely to
further strain Russia's ties with the West.
Moscow, Tuesday, Xinhua
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