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NATO believes the restriction on troop movement near Russia is no longer valid

Mircea Geoana, NATO’s deputy secretary general, believes that NATO is no longer bound by a 1997 agreement with Russia limiting the permanent deployment of alliance troops in Central and Eastern Europe.

Geoana, who attended the NATO Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Vilnius, told Lithuanian media that “It is Russia that has come out of all norms and agreements under (Russian President Vladimir) Putin”. signed between the alliance and that country”.

Referring to calls from the Baltic states for a more permanent NATO military presence on their soil, he told parliamentarians “all countries on the eastern flank are demanding the strongest possible position from NATO. And that’s what we are. I will because, as I said, Russia has lifted the restrictions we have placed on ourselves.”

“Russia actually ended the content of this agreement. It took decisions, it made commitments not to attack its neighbors, and to consult regularly with NATO,” Geoana told the Baltic agency BNS.