NATO gives Ankara bonuses in form of additional 'protection' measures instead of condemning attack on Russian plane - Grushko
BRUSSELS. Jan 5 (Interfax) - NATO is not making any great secret of the fact that, when formulating measures to 'boost Turkey's confidence', allies within this organization allegedly cannot help but take account, among other factors, of the Russian air campaign in Syria, Russia's Permanent Representative to NATO, Alexander Grushko, said in an interview with Interfax.
"And this notorious 'Trans-Atlantic solidarity' is revealing its true face here once again - instead of condemning the attack on the Russian airplane, they are giving Ankara bonuses in the form of additional 'protection' measures," the high-ranking Russian diplomat said.
"The alliance argues that these so-called measures to further increase Turkey's security had started to be developed long before the incident with the Russian Su-24 plane. In them, it is possible to see an attempt to partially 'offset' the consequences entailed for Turkey by a considerable downsizing of the alliance's mission to protect Turkey's south from some missile threats from the territory of Syria - of the five batteries of Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems deployed there earlier, the allies have withdrawn four," Grushko said.
On the whole, the impression is that "the military presence of the alliance's countries in the region has been adapted to primarily help tackle the tasks of the U.S.-led coalition operating there, which, as has been proclaimed, is fighting against Islamic State [ISIL, a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia]," he said.
"We will have to take a close look at the nature that the declared measures will have. If we see that they will be taken to 'contain' Russia in the southern direction as well, this will seriously complicate the formation of a truly broad international coalition to combat ISIL, an initiative on which we are vigorously working today," he said.
The full version of Grushko's interview will be published on the http://www.interfax.ru/ website.