Russia does not find NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s statement convincing that the alliance should be strengthened after the Russian Federation’s withdrawal from the European Conventional Armed Forces Agreement (CEC). He said this in an interview RIA News Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov.
The diplomat recalled that the de facto suspension of the Russian Federation’s participation in the CFE Treaty took place on December 13, 2007.
Ulyanov also expressed the opinion that the presence of NATO forces near Russian borders will increase in the future. In this regard, he recalled that the Russia-NATO Law of 1997 prohibits the permanent deployment of significant combat forces on the territory of new members of the alliance. Despite this, 5 thousand American soldiers appeared in Poland a few years ago.
In response to the Russian side’s question about how this is linked to its obligation not to deploy significant combat forces, NATO said that these forces are not there permanently, but on a rotational basis. Ulyanov described this attitude as a mockery of common sense and an indication of how reliable the organization in question can be.
Previously in the USA questioned The rigidity of Russia’s “red lines”.