Russia will give adequate response if Ukraine joins NATO — lower house speaker

2015/05/31

MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. Russia will provide an adequate response if a decision is taken on Ukraine’s joining NATO, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin said in an interview for TASS special project Top Officials.

In reply to a question if there is a chance that at the national referendum on Ukraine’s joining NATO the answer will be "yes," Naryshkin said: "I can imagine a situation in which the results of the plebiscite may be presented in this way."

In this case, the North Atlantic Alliance will then come to Russia’s doorstep and this "will weigh upon the conscience of those who in February 2014 triggered the coup that overthrew the legal government of President Viktor Yanukovich," he added.

"Russia will respond to such actions as yet another step towards worsening relations, and we will not leave it unanswered," Naryshkin said, adding: "At least we have no intention of joining NATO."

The speaker stressed that yet some sort of agreements will have to be looked for.

"For the previous two decades we thought we were having a productive dialogue with the alliance, there had been created joint institutions and joint projects were being implemented. Now all this is in ruins," he said.

Naryshkin said he was born optimist and believes that "the black stripe in relations between Russia and the West will end and common sense will prevail." "Certainly. Some hints are already in sight," he said.

The world has enough "honest and decent people, responsible politicians who first and foremost take care about the national interests of their countries and are least oriented towards the so-called euro-Atlantic solidarity."

In this context, Russia has "very much in common with Europe - culture, history, traditions, and humanitarian and spiritual values," he said.

The full text of the interview is available at http://ift.tt/1JcTAWD.



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