BERLIN (Sputnik) – NATO-Russia relations deteriorated greatly amid the Ukrainian crisis. NATO has increased its military presence in Europe, particularly in Eastern European countries bordering Russia.
Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it is not a party to the Ukrainian conflict and that NATO’s military expansion increases tensions, threatening regional security.
"Everything we did at the NATO summit in Wales, everything that the eastern and central European countries say, has the root cause in the fact that everything we tried to achieve and continue to seek, the constructive NATO-Russia relations, is still at an unsatisfactory level," Merkel told a press conference.
