Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin hit out on Wednesday at the NATO military alliance and said the organzation had outlived its purpose.
“NATO is a Cold War era relic," Putin, the current prime minister, told State Duma lawmakers in his final address to parliament before his inauguration as president in May. "It was created in times of a bi-polar system of international relations."
"But today’s situation is different and it’s not clear what an organization like NATO is for,” Putin added.
But he also said that that NATO often played a stabilizing role in international affairs.
“NATO acts within the UN mandate in Afghanistan…and it is in our national interests too to have the Afghan situation brought under control," he said.
He also denied Russia was to host a NATO military base in the Ulyanovsk region for transits to and from Afghanistan.
"This is not a base at all...it's a site for air military cargo transit," he said.
Russia has provided its territory for NATO’s Afghanistan-bound cargoes since 2009. Last year, Moscow also agreed to allow the cargoes to cross Russia’s territory in the opposite direction as the alliance is preparing to pull out its troops from Afghanistan.
