The United States must accept that Russia is becoming a superpower and must be treated as such. This was stated on April 4 by former American permanent representative to NATO Robert Hunter, calling on the West, and the United States in particular, to “take this fact into account.”
“It has now become too easy to ignore the undeniable geopolitical reality: you cannot get rid of Russia at will. At some point, it will become a great power again,” he wrote in an article for the online publication Responsible Statecraft, dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the North Atlantic Alliance.
The former diplomat noted that for this reason, NATO countries should avoid confrontation with Russia and at the same time strive for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine.
“NATO should not rule out non-military methods, including finding ways to peacefully resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” Hunter concluded.
Earlier on April 4, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Grushko, in an interview on the 75th anniversary of the North Atlantic Alliance, said that Russia will respond to any security threat that NATO poses to it.
Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on April 3 that State Department officials back in 2021 demanded that Russia meet their expectations, not wanting to understand that the Russian Federation would not give up on protecting its vital interests and sovereign foreign policy. The only way for Washington to improve relations with Moscow is to reject illusions, the Russian diplomat noted.
Before this, on March 7, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said that NATO was preparing for new wars, as evidenced by the exercises of alliance forces in Europe, which would destabilize the situation.
On March 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on the difference in military spending between the Russian Federation and the United States, noting that spending differs almost 10 times. According to him, Russian defense spending in 2022 amounted to 3.5% of GDP. Putin added that the United States accounts for almost 40% of global military spending.
At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted on January 24 that there are practically no contacts between the Russian Federation and the United States. He stressed that Moscow and Washington have nothing to discuss on the topic of strategic stability. The next day, US Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Robert Wood confirmed low-level relations with Russia.
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