MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Monday it would suspend the activities of its diplomatic mission at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) because the Western military alliance expelled eight Russians saying they were spies.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said officials at the NATO military mission in Moscow will lose their credentials from Nov. 1 and that the alliance’s information office in the Russian capital will be closed.
“If NATO members have any urgent matters, they can contact our ambassador to Belgium about these issues,” Lavrov said at a news conference.
On Oct. 6, NATO said it had expelled eight members of the Russian alliance mission it said were “undeclared Russian intelligence authorities.”
At the time, Moscow said the expulsions undermined hopes of normalizing relations with the US-led entity.
“NATO is not interested in equal dialogue and working together,” Lavrov said Monday in announcing the closure of the Russian mission. “If that’s the case, we don’t see the need to continue pretending that changes in the foreseeable future are possible.”
The dispute marks the most recent deterioration in ties between the two sides, already at its worst since the Cold War.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Russia no longer seemed willing to engage with the West.
“It is more than just regrettable this decision taken in Moscow,” he said. “This will seriously damage the relationship.”
Russia accuses NATO of provocative activities near its borders and has recently carried out major military exercises.
The alliance says it is determined to bolster the security of member states close to Russia following Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine in 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
(By Angelina Kazakova and Andrey Ostroukh)
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