MOSCOW. Sept 22 (Interfax) - The North Atlantic alliance's plans to deploy troops in Eastern Europe on a rotation basis are at variance with the Russia-NATO Founding Act, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
"One can say that the U.S. intention to ensure permanent rotation-based presence in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Baltic republics means that units will replace one another while their hardware stays in place," Ryabkov said at the Public Chamber.
If this happens, the Founding Act's provision which pledged the absence of permanently deployed forces will be circumvented, the Russian diplomat said.
"We believe that the NATO interpretation breaches the Founding Act's provision which [requires parties] to abstain from permanent deployment of significant combat forces and hardware," Ryabkov said.