MOSCOW. Oct 19 (Interfax) - By suspending the operations of the Russian permanent mission to NATO, Moscow has de jure formalized the actual absence of relations with the alliance, and this decision was essential and inevitable, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
"If we talk about the situation on the whole, the de facto state of affairs has been formalized de jure, and this is how this can be described: there have actually been no relations and no dialogue," Peskov said.
Moreover, "NATO has declared its determination to contain Russia in any possible way and upheld these words with some concrete actions," he said.
"The expulsion of our diplomats working in Brussels was the last straw, and all of this made it necessary and inevitable to transform the de facto situation into the de jure state," Peskov said.
Russia "won't suffer" from this decision, he said.
"There has been no dialogue between us and NATO as is, and if need be, as the Russian foreign minister has explained, the Russian ambassador in Brussels will be in a position to answer all the relevant questions," Peskov said.
"It's how it was before: the functions of maintaining a dialogue rested with our ambassador in Brussels," he said.
"We've said on numerous occasions that you can't tango alone, and we aren't going to do so," Peskov said.