MOSCOW. Oct 18 (Interfax) - The North Atlantic Alliance is a partner that is impossible to negotiate with, and its actions in relation to the Russian mission to the alliance are treacherous, Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachyov said.
"Talking about 'interaction' in words and wrapping up the main channel of communication with Russia in practice means one thing: they utter high-sounding words for internal use about NATO's sincerest aspiration for dialogue with Russia, while in practice, they reduce the capacity of this dialogue to zero. It must be acknowledged that in Brussels, we're dealing with a partner impossible to negotiate with, which is objectively very bad for us all," Kosachyov said on Facebook on Monday.
Even in the worst of times, it is better to have platforms for dialogue with the participation of experts and military officials, he said.
"But the problem with NATO is that it cannot in principle maintain equal relations with anyone, enraptured by its own might. 'We are strong, and so we are right' is the real motive for the alliance's actions, and this motive doesn't imply any compromises or taking someone else's interests into account, including, by the way, the interests of citizens of NATO member countries," Kosachyov said.
This is how Kosachyov commented on information about Moscow's steps in response to the actions of the alliance, specifically, the suspension of the operations of Russia's permanent mission to NATO in Brussels and the NATO Military Liaison Mission in Moscow, as well as the shutdown of the NATO Information Office in Moscow.
On October 6, the NATO Secretariat officially notified of Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg deciding to revoke the accreditation of eight members of the Russian permanent mission to NATO and reduce the general number of its personnel to ten people.
"The justification for this step was close to being insane: Stoltenberg said that the expulsion of eight Russians wasn't linked to any particular event," Kosachyov said. "'We have seen over some time now an increase in Russian malign activity, and therefore we need to be vigilant.' And after all, the alliance, they say, feels that diplomats were accomplishing assignments incompatible with their status," he said.
"In short, there is neither pretext nor facts presented by them in justification of their actions: this isn't deemed necessary at all. They go, 'we have seen' and 'we feel' something bad. The apogee of diplomacy, in my view. This is even more than 'highly likely.' This is blatant treachery," Kosachyov said.