Medvedev: Russia needs guarantees all NATO hostilities are halted

Moscow (ANTARA) - Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has said NATO expansion poses an existential threat to Moscow, and that Russia therefore needs guarantees that it will not be attacked and that all hostile actions will be halted. “I have already mentioned the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). This military-political bloc, which is hostile to us, not only continues to exist but is actively expanding. Various plans have been announced to admit new members from former Soviet Union countries into NATO, including Georgia and Ukraine,” Medvedev told the South Ossetia newspaper. Medvedev stressed that NATO’s actions “constitute an existential threat to Russia.” “We need additional guarantees that we will not be attacked by other countries, that all hostile actions against our country will be halted, and that the blood of our citizens and compatriots will not be shed,” Medvedev said.