Russia has never called NATO an enemy - Lavrov

MOSCOW, December 16. /TASS/. Russia has never called NATO an enemy, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview to the France 24 TV channel on Tuesday. “I’ve never said this,” the minister said, answering a question of a French correspondent who supposed that Lavrov have said many times that he felt “that NATO as an organisation is an enemy for Russia…” “Well, when you have an impression you should ask a question, and then read the documents. The document which is relevant in this case is the military doctrine of the Russian Federation. It never mentions that NATO is an enemy,” Lavrov said. “What it says is that the security risks for Russia, among other things, are NATO expansion to the East and the movement of military infrastructure of NATO closer to the Russian borders - not NATO itself, but its militarised movement to the East is considered by the Russian military doctrine as a security risk and threat for Russia,” said the Russian foreign minister. Asked if Russia planned to cut off ties with NATO, Lavrov said, “We don’t need to do this because NATO did it for us.” “They have cut practically all ties between the Alliance and Russia,” he said. “They just kept on hold basically the NATO-Russia Ambassadorial Council, but they severed all practical cooperative mechanisms, including on Afghanistan, including on counter-terrorism, some other specific things - they have frozen everything,” Lavrov said. “But having done so in the context of NATO-Russia projects, they quietly come to us and say, “Well, let’s continue training pilots for the Afghan Air Force, but doing this outside NATO-Russia.” “In other words, the substance they want to continue, but for the public consumption, they want to say that they are so firm with Russia that they severed all the ties. Childish, but what to do? Sometimes big boys play games,” Lavrov said. Read more