20.10.2021, Moscow.
Russia must take a tough stance and adequately respond to threats, retired colonel and doctor of historical sciences Vrezh Harutyunyan said to Rossa Primavera News Agency commenting on the worsening of relations between Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO).
“NATO is an aggressive alliance, which… after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, continued to exist for unclear purposes… And now it is clear what the purpose is. It is anti-Russian,” the historian said.
Harutyunyan noted that contrary to the long-standing agreements, the military alliance pursues an aggressive policy and expands to the East – seeking, for example, to reduce the flight time of its missiles to Russia from 10-12 minutes to the minimum values.
“What does this mean? Russia’s strategy is based on the counter and retaliatory strikes. That is, when enemy missiles have taken off, then we can retaliate. But now we are put in conditions in which we cannot implement this strategy. Because if the missiles take off from the new sites, in two minutes they will already be at our doors,” Harutyunyan explained.
According to him, NATO is trying to put us at a disadvantage, and that means also the United States, which plays a defining role in the alliance. And Russia is “starting to face very complex issues.”
Colonel Harutyunyan recalled that the alliance has expelled Russian diplomats from Brussels several times, and now this is happening again. Such actions, moreover, without explaining the reasons, are a clear sign that NATO does not consider Russia an equal partner, and such steps require a response.
“For this, they [Russian authorities] need to simply show the marks which must not be overstepped. And so, a decision in line with this was made – they expelled their communication hubs and other structures that were in Moscow,” the expert explained.
According to Harutyunyan, the demarches by NATO should be responded to “adequately” – “they must receive a hard response immediately … if we are being soft, the results will be very bad.”
As Rossa Primavera News Agency reported on October 18, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced the suspension of work of the Russian Permanent Mission to NATO and the NATO mission in Moscow starting from November 1.
The NATO Information Office at the Belgian Embassy and the military liaison mission of the alliance in Moscow will cease their work. The Russian authorities made the decision in response to the Alliance’s decision to reduce the number of staff in the Russian mission in Brussels to 10 people.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
