Russia suspends the work of the mission to NATO and the military mission of the Alliance in Moscow

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the work of the country’s mission to NATO will be stopped from November 1. Also will stop the work of the military communications mission and the information bureau of the Alliance in Moscow.

Lavrov said this during a press conference following talks with Foreign Minister of Guinea-Bissau Susi Carla Barbosa. Also, according to him, the accreditation of the employees of the military mission will be revoked. The minister noted that NATO is aware of the decision of the Russian side. All joint issues in the future will be resolved through the Russian ambassador to Belgium.

According to Lavrov, no negotiations are currently underway between Russia and NATO. “There are no contacts at all through the military,” the minister said.

According to military expert Alexander Golts, what happened is the result of a reduction in relations that began back in 2014. “This means a serious curtailment of the already very modest dialogue between Russia and NATO. This reduction took place in 2014. At some point, NATO ceased to be interested in communicating with the mission, which is located in Brussels, and they began to view it exclusively as a scout. In fact, since 2014, there have been no serious contacts. Therefore, what has happened now is a sad statement of earlier events. I think nothing more terrible will happen, since the main relations have safely moved into the area of ​​direct contacts between the highest military ranks, ”the expert said in an interview with The Insider.

Earlier, the NATO leadership decided to revoke the accreditation of eight employees of the Russian permanent mission and reduce the number of permits to ten. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said it had nothing to do with any specific events. “But we have seen an increase in Russian malicious activity for some time now,” Stoltenberg said. According to him, the Russians whose accreditation was revoked were officers of the Russian special services.