On Monday, Russia announced it will suspend its mission to NATO and close the alliance’s office in Moscow in response to NATO expelling eight Russian diplomats from its headquarters in Brussels.
“Following certain measures taken by NATO, the basic conditions for common work no longer exist,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. “In response to NATO’s activities, we suspend the work of our permanent mission to NATO, including the work of the chief military representative, starting from November 1st.”
Lavrov said NATO’s office in Moscow would also be closed starting in November. He said if Russia and the alliance needed to communicate, it could be done through the Russian embassy in Belgium.
NATO accused the Russian diplomats it expelled of being spies or, as the alliance put it, “undeclared Russian intelligence officers.” When the expulsion was announced earlier this month, Russia denounced the move and said it hinders chances of Moscow normalizing relations with the US-led military alliance.
The diplomatic spat comes as tensions between Russia and NATO are rising over NATO’s increased military activity in the Black Sea and other sensitive areas.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said NATO-Russia relations are at their lowest point since the Cold War and blamed the tensions on Moscow. But since the Soviet Union collapsed, NATO has expanded from 16 members to 30, absorbing former Soviet states, including some that border Russia.
Old news, they do this all the time, when in reality they should be pushing USA , NATO troops away from their borders,,but they are too much a basket case to do any thing but BARK. The USA is heading in that same direction.
They did a lot more than bark last June in the Black Sea…
Russian warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of British destroyer Defender.
The only direction the US ought to be taking is full speed reverse.
America / NATO will IMO start something they can`t finish but Russia will , all the NATO countries are nothing but pawns to the Americans and when the shooting starts America will do as it has done in Afghanistan.
jessie,,the majority of young people in the USA would not fight voluntarily for this country, some 30% percent could not pass the Draft physical, and if a Conscription starts the cities will burn,,USA today is like a 12 inch dic# that can’t get up. Wanna talk about our being no longer, actually far from, an “arsenal of democracy”, having given that away years ago by greedy and short sighted Corporations and DC Ghouls!! But we do have a great and inspiring President! 🙂 LOL!
I expect exactly the same thing is true of the US people sent to Russia. For the same reasons.