Those who want to return to Cold War times take upper hand in NATO - Russian envoy in NATO

MOSCOW, April 7 (Itar-Tass) - Those who want to return to Cold War times and attain tighter consolidation of the NATO states over Article 5 of the Treaty of Washington are taking upper hand in the alliance. Article 5 of the Treaty of Washington is the basis for a NATO fundamental principle of collective defence. “A too harsh response to our questions over AWACS flights, double intensity of air patrolling over the Baltic states, intensification of military and aircraft activity at an airbase in the Polish city of Lask, assistance to “the government of winners” in Kiev exposes fully architects of this campaign,” Russian Permanent Representative at NATO Alexander Grushko told Kommersant daily, adding that “It looks like someone in NATO really believes that the alliance is a source of political legitimacy [as NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in his recent speech] and therefore any NATO actions are correct by definition and cannot be discussed. “This is a major misconception. Lessons of Kosovo, Iraq and Libya will not be forgotten.” Recently NATO representatives do not rule out that additional military forces, particularly a 4,500-strong brigade from the U.S. military base Fort Hood, may be deployed in Eastern European countries. Alexander Grushko believes that this “would ruin finally the system of commitments for military deterrence that are fixed in the Russia-NATO basic act. Certainly if these steps are taken, they will require tougher security measures from us.” Commenting on the question of the daily on suspension of NATO co-operation with Russia on the scope of already launched projects, particularly Afghanistan, the Russian permanent representative noted that “After work of dialogue mechanisms in the Russia-NATO Council was suspended, we did not discuss co-operation on Afghanistan. We will decide ourselves how to assist to the Afghans in bilateral ties, in co-operation with other international organisations and partners.” Learn more on itar-tass.com