ST. PETERSBURG, May 23 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow is not cancelling an upcoming Russia-NATO Council meeting but requests a date change as May 27 is not convenient for the Russian delegation, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov told RIA Novosti Friday.
“I think it is hard to answer this question now [about the date] because as you know we have been urging to have this meeting as soon as possible for the last three weeks and were ready to hold it yesterday or today. We are obviously not refusing to hold it later but the mutually satisfactory date needs to be found. That is why I am not ready to say whether it would be next week or later,” Meshkov said.
He noted that May 27 “is absolutely not suitable for the Russian side”.
Russia's envoy to NATO, Alexander Grushko, said Monday that Moscow had insisted on an immediate meeting of the NATO-Russia Council due to a sharp deterioration of the situation in crisis-hit Ukraine. A source in NATO said the alliance suggested holding a meeting of ambassadors on May 27.
On April 1, NATO ended all practical cooperation with Russia over Ukraine, maintaining contacts at the ambassadorial level and higher. The foreign ministers of NATO members are to review relations with Moscow at their next meeting in June.
Relations between Russia and the West have been strained since the regime change in Ukraine late February, when the parliament ousted President Viktor Yanukovych and scheduled early presidential elections for May 25.
Moscow has repeatedly condemned the Western-backed military operation launched by the current authorities in Kiev in mid-April in the southeastern parts of Ukraine in an attempt to suppress the country’s pro-federalization movement.
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