NATO seeks regime change in Russia - envoy

“The speech in Riga demonstrates the concern about Russia’s democracy and internal policy. At last, now we know that NATO has a dream, and this dream is a Maidan in Russia,” Aleksandr Grushko said in comment that was tweeted through the Russian representation office in the alliance.

Grushko referred to the words of NATO's deputy secretary general, Alexander Vershbow, who had told a conference in the Latvian capital Riga that President Vladimir Putin's "aim seems to be to turn Ukraine into a failed state and to suppress and discredit alternative voices in Russia, so as to prevent a Russian 'Maidan.'" Both officials used the Ukrainian word ‘Maidan’ to describe a string of protest actions that eventually turned into mass unrest and the ousting of the legally elected president and parliament.

“By demonizing Russia, NATO creates a virtual reality, disconnecting itself from real threats to security,” the Russian envoy said.

Grushko added that NATO itself has used “hybrid warfare” against foreign states and now the alliance is attempting to accuse Russia of starting such a war in Ukraine.

“NATO has a long history of hybrid operations. Any country or organization can take a lesson from it. We have earlier seen these signs of military intimidation, hidden involvement, weapons supplies,economic blackmail, diplomatic duplicity, mass media manipulations and open disinformation,” the Russian envoy stated.

“The statement made in Riga is yet another set of arguments seeking only to justify NATO’s confrontational attitude to Russia,” he said.

“It is not likely that NATO has the right to consider itself the sole source of truth. The alliance has repeatedly discredited itself by spreading false information both about its own behavior and about the actions of others,” Grushko said in conclusion. “Not many will follow NATO’s advice to return to the times of the Cold War,” he forecasted.

READ MORE: West must admit its mistakes to improve security in Europe – envoy

In October last year, Grushko urged Western nations to acknowledge their policy faults and improve relations with Russia.

“We and our Western partners, first of all Europe, must recognize that their policies of the past few years are only deepening the dividing lines between Russia and Europe, and this is extremely dangerous,” the Russian diplomat said. “The West must eventually acknowledge the fact that the mechanical implementation of its recent policies is leading itself into a dead end.”