Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia: Russia's Cooperation with NATO is Completely Stopped

Cooperation between Russia and NATO on military and civil lines “completely stopped”, said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Alexander Grushko. According to him, this is the fault of the Alliance, which “abandoned the positive agenda” in relations with Moscow. Grushko compared the current situation with the cold war, but noted that “the current crisis in relations between Russia and NATO is the longest in history”. According to the Russian diplomat, all sober-minded people hope that the armed conflict between Russia and NATO will not happen. He did not rule out the risk of “unintentional incidents” that may arise due to “misunderstood intentions”. NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who will soon leave his post, said yesterday that communication between Russia and the Alliance is now almost worse than during the cold war. “At that time we understood each other’s signals, we talked, – he said. – I’m concerned that we don’t know them as well today”. He noted that within a few years he only twice talked with the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia Valery Gerasimov. NATO froze contacts with Russia in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine. Svoboda.org