He noted that in the present-day conditions many Russians perceived NATO as an ally in resolving many acute enough issues, including in combating terrorism and opposing modern challenges to society.
He specified that today Russia is perplexed by the alliance's striving for expanding its zone of influence. Today Russia does not possess the might the former Soviet Union used to have and no threat emanates from it," the deputy stressed. He noted that in these conditions NATO's expansion to the East arouses people's great concern.
He also mentioned one more aspect arousing anxiety in Russia - the fact that seven new NATO member-countries did not sign the conventional armed forces in Europe (CFE) treaty. He also noted that four countries - new NATO members (the three Baltic states and Slovenia) are not parties to the CFE Treaty. "Since these states are not parties to the [CFE] Treaty, any quantity of NATO weapons can be deployed on their territory," Vassiliyev stressed.
The deputy also pointed out that the operations carried out by the North Atlantic alliance, for instance in Yugoslavia and Iraq, far from always yield positive results.
