NATO intention to move infrastructure to Russian borders leads to escalation — official

NATO’s intentions to move the military infrastructure to the Russian borders lead to escalating tensions, Russian Ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko said in an interview with Kommersant daily on Wednesday.
The implementation of the NATO Wales summit decisions proves that the Alliance “intends to continue increasing operation readiness and move its military infrastructure to the Russian borders. This is a direct way towards escalating tension and undermining military security in the regional dimension and in Europe as a whole,” Grushko said.
“In addition, NATO on its own increases military incident risks and weakens security of the states that trumpeted Russia’s military threat and required additional protection by deploying the Allies’ troops in their territory,” he said.
NATO needs Russia to withstand present-day global challenges
Grushko said NATO can hardly withstand present-day global challenges without Russia’s assistance, but the ball is on the side of the Western military alliance. According to Grushko, Russia never refused cooperation with the western military bloc.

Grushko said that Moscow “has always had a firm stance that true cooperation is possible only on an equal and mutually respected basis.”
“Considering all this, we directly stated our resentment of NATO’s expansion policy and the movement of its military infrastructure up to the Russian borders, as well as our non-admission of ignorance of international law norms.”
“By cutting off cooperation with Russia, the alliance weakens the potential of international efforts in the fight against terrorism, piracy, the Weapons of Mass Destruction proliferation, drugs trafficking and regional instability,” he said. “Therefore, the ball is on the alliance’s side.”
According to Grushko, “it will be hardly possible to withstand challenges alone, no matter how powerful the alliance might look like in the eyes of its member states.”
“It is obvious that such developments are not providing for true interests concerning the strengthening of the common European security on the collective basis,” Grushko said.