Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

"If we talk about the essence of the processes, taking place in NATO, I am sure that in many ways, some member countries of the North Atlantic bloc took advantage of the situation in Ukraine in order to breathe new life into the alliance," he said. "In fact, NATO has serious system crisis. The 20 years operations period has ended, the results are well known: the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, decaying of Libya, the current events in Iraq, and the following way out of Afghanistan with none of the tasks resolved."

"If to talk about collective defense tasks," the diplomat continued, "For 20 years, the Article 5 of North Atlantic Treaty was applied only once, in 2001, after the events of September 11, and the purpose of the alliance in the new security environment is unclear".

Russia's permanent representative recalled that the North Atlantic Community has left the international projects, joint with Russia in the areas of common interest on unilateral basis, "as they were defined at the Lisbon summit in 2010".

"First of all," he said, "it is the fight against terrorism, the situation in Afghanistan, countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, piracy".

According to him, decisions, adopted in Brussels concerning this, were "completely unfounded", they were taken "violating all existing obligations under the Founding Act of the Rome Declaration."

"Real cooperation is minimized," stated Grushko. "However, Russia, as a responsible member of the international community, will continue to implement these projects whether independently or with other partners, as they meet the interests of our national and global security." At the moment, he said, NATO is preparing for the summit. "We are closely following the preparation and know that a lot of attention in the summit will be paid to Russia and to Russia-NATO relations," the diplomat added. "Of course, we will judge the future intentions of the alliance not by words, but by concrete steps."

"Our assessment on what NATO is doing around the Russian borders is well known," said Grushko. “We believe that there is no real reason for the "muscle-flexing" near our borders. We believe that the measures, taken by NATO to provide additional protection to its members, are redundant. They are not adequate and do not reflect the real situation in the field of security. Nobody is threatening NATO countries." According to him, NATO’s play-war near the Russian border "only causes tensions, destabilize the situation in some regions and destabilize the situation in Ukraine".

"At the moment, very specific measures are needed in order to stop violence in Ukraine, instead of showing support to Kiev in the issue of using force against its own people” he added. "Kiev authorities are responsible for the corresponding decisions."

"If NATO believes that the alliance can make some contribution to the resolution of the crisis, it should send a signal to Kiev," said the diplomat. "NATO member countries have repeatedly stated that a military solution is not an option, and that NATO has no military or political role in the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis," he explained. "Therefore, we believe that these statements, these declarations will be fulfilled."

"Nevertheless, NATO is quite pointedly providing substantial support to the authorities in Kiev," said Grushko. "This is a signal that they have been sending for a long time, of the continuation of the policy of unlawful acts towards its own population. Moscow has repeatedly reminded the colleagues in NATO-Russia Council that in February the alliance has made ​​a number of statements about the need to start an inclusive political process, that armed forces should remain politically neutral, without interfering in the internal conflict".

"We believe that there is no reason that would prevent NATO from taking the same position since the task to launch an inclusive process remains in force," said the permanent representative.