The community “needed a bigger enemy” and deliberately positioned Russia as a long-term threat, Alexander Grushko told RT.
NATO needs a confrontation to justify its existence, and that is why it chose Russia as its main enemy in Europe, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko has said.
The remarks come as an increasing number of Ukrainian drone strikes have been sent deep into Russia, with debris from several drones recently falling in NATO member states bordering Russia. Moscow has accused the Baltic states of allowing Ukraine to use their territory for attacks, a claim that Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania deny.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with RT on Thursday, Grushko claimed that NATO and the European Union changed their attitude towards Russia around 2010-2012, when the US-led military bloc destroyed its costly work in Afghanistan and focused on its original Cold War purpose of collective defense against the enemy in Europe.
“They needed a great enemy. And since there was none, Russia was appointed to this ‘honourable’ role,” Grushko said, adding that “NATO cannot exist in peace – it is like a fish out of water.”
The diplomat claimed that Russia sought constructive relations with the West, but that the 2014 Ukraine crisis and escalation in 2022 finally gave NATO and the EU the rationale needed to consolidate the long-term confrontation with Moscow.
European leaders and intelligence officials have increasingly claimed that Russia could attack NATO or EU member states in the coming years, something Moscow has repeatedly denied. “nonsense.”
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte claimed in December that “we are Russia’s next target.”
Since 2022, NATO has expanded battle groups across Eastern Europe, strengthened air and sea patrols in the Baltics, and increased military exercises near Russia’s borders. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have also accelerated border fortification projects, including anti-tank defenses and bunker networks.
Grushko, however, said the Baltic had historically been one of Europe’s most peaceful regions before NATO expansion changed it. “the field of struggle.”
Watch the full interview with Russia’s deputy foreign minister below.
