Moscow warns of retaliation for NATO eastward expansion

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (R) holds a news conference with Foreign Minister of Montenegro Igor Luksic after a NATO foreign ministers meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Dec 2, 2015.NATO invited Montenegro on Wednesday to join the military alliance in its first expansion since 2009.[Photo/Agencies]

MOSCOW - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peksov said Wednesday that the continuous eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will lead to retaliatory measures from Russia.

"NATO's military infrastructure to the east, cannot but lead to retaliatory measures from Russia in terms of ensuring security interests and supporting the parity of interests," Peksov commented on NATO's decision to invite Montenegro to join the military alliance.

Earlier in the day, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the decision was not about Russia, nor directed at any third-party country.

In response to Stoltenberg's remarks on the possible resumption of NATO-Russia Council's work, Peskov said he had not heard of the specific statement and was unaware of any movements toward this.

The NATO-Russia Council was created during the 2002 NATO Summit in Rome as an official diplomatic tool for handling security issues and joint projects between NATO and Russia, yet was suspended in 2014 as tensions rose between the two sides when Russian troops moved into Crimea.

Russia is ready to meet with NATO in the NATO-Russia Council format if the military bloc puts forward such a proposal, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency during his visit to Cyprus.

Meanwhile, Peskov said that Moscow's sanctions against Ankara over the downing of a Russian warplane are different from those imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis, as it is preventive in nature to guard against terrorist threats.