Russia does not see NATO as a threat

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has criticized the way NATO officials interpret Russia’s new military doctrine. In an interview with the Moscow-based Kommersant newspaper, he explained that the doctrine did not see NATO as a security threat and was in fact not about threats but about hazards. The latter do not include NATO as such but quite different things as, for example, the alliance’s efforts “to project its military potential onto any part of the world in breech of international law”.   

The fact that NATO’s defenses spread far beyond its territory and its military infrastructure approaches Russia’s borders leaves Moscow worrying. Finally, the list of the alliance’s security cooperation partners mentioned the United Nations as a consulting partner. But in matters pertaining to the use of force, consultations are not an appropriate form as regards the UN. The UN Charter allows the use of military force only in two cases: as self-defense in case of an attack, or when force was authorized by the UN Security Council. NATO documents take no account of that, which doubtless has a destabilizing effect on the international situation.   

It would be wrong to say that, as a military and political structure, NATO is a threat to Russia, but what Moscow needs to understand is how the alliance is evolving. If its evolution proceeds in the afore-mentioned directions, then this is an outright neglect of international law. Asked about the possibility of Russia joining NATO, Mr. Lavrov ruled it out completely.   

Touching upon American missile defense, he said the Barack Obama Administration had dropped plans to build the so-called third positioning missile defense area in Europe but put forward an alternative and was working on it.

As a result, by 2018-2020, the non-strategic system may acquire strategic characteristics. It’s important to understand how this will fit into strategic stability and into the Russian-US relationship on strategic offensive weapons. Meeting in Moscow last summer, Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama issued a declaration on the joint analysis of missile threats. But at the same time and without any such analysis, Washington is creating a new missile defense system with Bulgaria and Romania.    

Asked about visa-free travel between Russia and the European Union, Mr. Lavrov was very laconic, saying that, in his view, that was a problem not for Russia but for the EU. At the recent Russia-EU summit in Rostov-on-Don, Russia handed the EU leaders a draft agreement on visa-free travel parameters, which contains detailed answers to all questions that interest the EU partners. All it will now take is political will on the part of the EU.