Collective European Security Impossible With West's 'Victor Mentality'

It will remain impossible to forge a political foundation for collective security in Europe as long as the West continues to behave like the winner of the arms race, Russia’s Permanent NATO Envoy Alexander Grushko said Wednesday.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — Grushko also said that hostility toward Russia was intrinsic in Western ideology.

"The Ukrainian crisis is largely a result of a policy that didn't take into account either the reality or the real interests of states that are not included in the so-called Western system… Therefore, as long as attitudes inherent to the victor mentality pervade in the West, no political foundation for a truly collective security system can be built," Grushko told RIA Novosti in an interview.

According to Grushko, non-Western countries have the same right to express their own point of view and protect their national interests.

Since 2014, Russia's relations with the West have deteriorated over the Ukrainian crisis. The West has blamed Russia for interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs, imposing several rounds of sanctions against Moscow.

Moscow has repeatedly called the allegations groundless.