Volodin draws parallel between Russia, Israel as regards both countries' concern over foreign armed forces near their borders
MOSCOW. June 8 (Interfax) - Russia's State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin has drawn parallels between the Israeli concerns over another nation's armed forces present near the Israeli border and Russian concerns about the presence of NATO forces near its borders.
"I agree with your view that what bugs Israel is moving of another state's armed forces near its own border. Accepting this view that you have expressed, I am asking you to recognize our position that Russia feels pressured when NATO deploys troops, missiles near the borders with our country," Volodin said during a meeting with a delegation of the German parliament, the Bundestag, led by Bundestag vice president Thomas Oppermann on Friday.
"I would like you to also have this understanding, I wish that Germany, understanding this, do everything for NATO to stop where it was originally agreed and refrain from waging arms in the vicinity of our borders," he said.
There should be no double standards in international politics, he went on. Russia-Germany relations are developing exactly because there are free from such double standards, Volodin said.
"But wherever the third force appears beside you and us or wherever decisions are made in a unilateral manner, bypassing the United Nations, we encounter tension and become, to some extent, hostages to those decisions that formulate the agenda and make the development of our relations problematic," Volodin said.