WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — NATO has heightened its activity along Russia’s border over the past two years, increasing rotational combat forces deployed to alliance’s eastern flank, carrying out B-52 bomber training flights, and conducting the largest military exercise in over a decade.
"We see the erosion, not the building of security… but erosion, even under those things that are left to create predictability in this environment for us," Kislyak said at the annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit.
Kislyak described NATO's "persistent rotation" of troops as "the same, if not worse" than an outright violation of the NATO-Russia founding act, which prevents an increase in permanently stationed combat forces on allies’ territory.
"The problem after the end of the Cold War is that we ended the war, but we haven’t created a peace that will be inclusive of both Russian and European interests".
Instead, Moscow has not seen "increased stability, predictability for Russia in Europe… in a way that would be respecting our interests and our security on an equal basis with the others," Kislyak explained.
Russia and the West currently have limited channels for engagement. NATO and the United States suspended military ties with Moscow in 2014, after the reunification of Crimea with Russia via a popular referendum.
The United States also ended at that time the Presidential Commission on Russia, which included 21 working groups dedicated to areas of mutual interest.
