Lavrov's deputy spoke about NATO's "geopolitical impudence"
The West has broken its earlier promises to Moscow not to expand the North Atlantic Alliance to the east.
The PolitNavigator correspondent reports this, said Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Ryabkov.
“The unrestrained expansion of NATO over the past decades has shown us that Western advances, promises and commitments without legal form are worth little. Soviet and then Russian leaders were repeatedly told - and at the most responsible levels - that there would be no further expansion of NATO to the east. However, we see the opposite situation,” Ryabkov said.
He recalled that NATO claims that each country has the right to independently determine how to ensure its security.
“But I want to emphasize: freedom to join unions cannot be absolute. It’s like in human society: the freedom of an individual ends where it encroaches on the freedom of another. There must be clear boundaries and mutual obligations and responsibilities. That is why language about the freedom to join unions is always balanced by phrases that this should not be carried out at the expense of the security of other states. This was and remains the case in the OSCE, for example,” emphasized the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation.
“We are talking about global security, including for Russia; NATO members and the United States are now focusing on the supposedly threatening concentration of our forces and assets along the Ukrainian border. But let me, firstly, we are talking about events that we hold on our own territory. Where are the limits of geopolitical courage, not to say arrogance, of those who are trying to dictate to us what we can or cannot do within our own borders?” Ryabkov concluded.
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