SOCHI. Oct 19 (Interfax) - Moscow assumes that NATO ought to take the first step to normalize relations with Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"Yes, this is our stance, because we were never the first to start a deterioration of our relations, either with NATO or with the EU," Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday, when asked whether Moscow believes that it is NATO that should take the first step to normalize relations in this situation.
The story of Moscow's worsening relations with the alliance began when then-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili "issued a criminal order to attack the city of Tskhinval" in 2008, Lavrov said. At the time, Russia insisted on calling a NATO-Russia Council meeting to discuss the situation, but then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flatly rejected the offer, he said.
"Although, when the NATO-Russia Council was established, it was underscored in its Founding Act that it should work in any weather," Lavrov said.
The Russian representatives at the mission to NATO in Brussels have been obstructed in all possible ways, Lavrov said. "In order to get to the NATO headquarters, our representatives, unlike representatives of all other partners of the North Atlantic Alliance, have to apply for permission to enter the building in advance, and they have to walk only via specifically indicated corridors. And in principle, there have been no information exchanges with the alliance's headquarters for a long time," he said.
"Most importantly, all contacts between the military have been cut, as has been said officially," Lavrov said.
"Given that, what lost opportunities for dialogue are we talking about?" Lavrov said when commenting on the remarks made by Western representatives suggesting that the measures Russia announced on Monday in regard to NATO show Moscow's unwillingness to maintain dialogue with the alliance.