NATO’s decision to suspend co-operation with Russia brings the world back to Cold War-style sword swinging, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday.
The 28-nation NATO bloc announced on Tuesday it will suspend all practical contacts with Moscow, in a move to put further pressure on Russia following its reunification with Crimea.
‘The decision of the NATO Council of foreign ministers to suspend co-operation with Russia in the civilian and military spheres seems like déjà vu,’ Alexander Lukashevich said, adding that ‘the language of the announcement is reminiscent of “sword swinging” during the Cold War.’
The diplomat said the alliance had already frozen the work of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) in 2008, in the wake of a brief war between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia.
Russia recognised the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia, shortly after the war, prompting furious criticism from the West. ‘How this “freezing” ended, we all know. NATO returned to cooperation with Russia on its own initiative,’ Lukashevich said.
NATO resumed cooperation after 10 months, announcing that the NRC should become an ‘all-weather forum’ to discuss differences and co-operate in enhancing dialogue. The diplomat said that neither Russia nor NATO countries win in halting mutual activities.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting on Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed hope that the suspension would not affect Russia’s participation in joint international projects in Afghanistan, such as anti-drug efforts.
He reiterated the importance of Russia’s maintenance of helicopters for the Afghan air force and the Russian transit route for deliveries of cargo to and from Afghanistan. Foreign ministers will review NATO’s relations with Russia at their next meeting in June.
Tensions between Russia and the West rose after the overthrow of pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February, followed by the rise to power of fascist-backed Ukrainian nationalist politicians in the new government in Kiev, which Moscow considers illegitimate.
The subsequent reunification of Crimea with Russia, sparked by deepening concerns over ultranationalist rhetoric from the new authorities in Kiev, triggered the deepest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the end of Cold War.
• Russian energy giant Gazprom has increased gas prices for Ukraine by $100 per 1,000 cubic metres from April 1st as the crisis-hit country has failed to pay for last year’s deliveries. ‘In line with the current contract on delivering gas, the price for Ukraine in the second quarter (of 2014) will be $385.50,’ Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said.
Miller said the company was scrapping a one-third discount for natural gas to Ukraine agreed in December between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s overthrown leader, Viktor Yanukovych.
‘The December discount for gas cannot be further applied,’ he told reporters, adding that Ukraine owes Russia about $1.7 billion in unpaid natural gas bills.
The Kremlin said last month that there were no legal grounds for the continuation of another $100 discount, which Ukraine received under a 2010 deal, as the discount was premised on the continuation of a basing agreement for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, which is no longer part of Ukraine.
After the agreement is officially nullified by Russia, Ukraine will have to pay $485.50 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas. Gazprom charges its European buyers $370 on average.
