Moscow not expecting breakthrough in relations with NATO, won't thrust cooperation on alliance

Moscow is not expecting a quality change in relations with NATO in the near future and is not going to thrust cooperation on the alliance, Russian Foreign Ministry European Cooperation Department Director Ivan Soltanovsky told Interfax in an interview.

"In our understanding, there is a fair amount of issues in which the alliance could cooperate with Russia in its own and common interests," the senior diplomat said.

"Yet the activity and the policy of the alliance are now so ideologized, confined within limits and artificially linked to Russia's fulfillment of the Minsk agreements and the resolution of the Ukraine crisis, as if we were a party to this crisis, that one can hardly expect a quality breakthrough in this area in the near future," Soltanovsky said.

In his words, NATO and Russia could cooperate in the fight against terrorism, the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and in the deterrence of other threats and challenges.

"Alas, the alliance has developed inertia of non-cooperation with Russia. Under these circumstances, we are not going to thrust our services, our assistance and our cooperation on the organization which has practically put a freeze on collaboration with us, and has limited the activity of our representatives to the access of two diplomats to the alliance headquarters," the diplomat said.