"As for Russia-NATO relations, I would not say 'catastrophic,' because to be catastrophic you need to have something. We don’t have any relations with NATO," Lavrov said.
The Russian Foreign Minister also commented on German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer's statements about NATO's need for a nuclear containment of Russia, calling them "fantasies."
"The disagreements that we have, they are from the sphere of ideology — who is the first to rule the world, this is what we hear from our 'friends' from NATO. We believe that we need to focus on reality", Lavrov noted. "Whereas NATO's imagination stretches toward 'containing' Russia, preparing for attacks on Russia, [...] these are all fantasies".
Earlier on Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia has always advocated the development of relations with NATO, despite the alliance's aggression, but all of Moscow's efforts for cooperation have been in vain.
In October, responding to the alliance's move to revoke the accreditation of eight employees of the Russian mission to NATO, Moscow suspended the operations of NATO’s information office. Commenting on the move, Peskov said it would not affect Russia, as there is currently no dialogue between the sides.
He also explained that NATO had declared its intention to "contain" Russia and backed it up with actions, adding that the expulsion of diplomats was the "final straw."