MINSK, October 26. /TASS/: Russia is compelled to resort to compensatory measures given the actions of the United States with respect to European security, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Minsk at the plenary session of a high-level international conference titled "Eurasian Security: Reality and Prospects in a Transforming World."
"The West has destroyed the system of confidence-building measures and arms control in Europe. It is enough to recall the withdrawal of the US from the treaties on missile defense, on the prohibition of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles. Increased strategic risks arise from the forward basing of US nuclear weapons in a number of European countries and the implementation of so-called joint nuclear missions," Lavrov said.
"This has an extremely destabilizing potential. Amid a general increase in threats from NATO, it forces us to resort to compensatory measures," Lavrov emphasized.
According to the Russian foreign minister, the Western geopolitical engineers, who "have apparently lost any connection with reality and think they are God's viceroys on Earth, are not embarrassed by the fact that their actions have trampled on the commitments undertaken at the highest level, including in the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe - TASS), to observe the principle of equal and indivisible security." It implies not strengthening one's security at the expense of others and not allowing any country or organization to dominate in Europe, Lavrov pointed out.
"NATO is doing exactly the opposite. And the OSCE itself, which was originally conceived as a pan-European platform for equal dialogue and broad cooperation, is being transformed by the efforts of NATO and EU members into a marginal structure that does not influence the security situation to any extent," Lavrov concluded.
