MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax) - Moscow sees nothing conducive to restoration of ties between Russia and NATO in the first statements made by the alliance's new chief, Jens Stoltenberg, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"To be honest and quite frank, so far the first statements by Mr. Stoltenberg instill no optimism," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said at a briefing in Moscow on Thursday.
"The atmosphere, which had in principle been maintained with the alliance until recently, vanished in an instant and it will be very difficult to restore it, to restore the dialogue," he said.
"We certainly hope that Mr. Stoltenberg will manage to do something, but for now we see no sign of it, unfortunately," said the Russian diplomat.