Cuts of NATO partner-countries' missions de facto targets Russia - diplomat
MOSCOW. Aug 27 (Interfax) - Russia sees NATO's decision to cut the strength of the missions of the alliance's partners, including the Russian permanent mission, as a step aimed at "de facto ousting" Russian diplomats from Brussels, Ivan Soltanovsky, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry General European Cooperation Department, said in an interview with Interfax.
"The mission's reduction is a vexed issue, and we are considering it from very different perspectives now," Soltanovsky said.
"We believe the motives behind this reduction are quite farfetched: the alliance has referred to a growing number of NATO partners and the need to house their missions in a new building of NATO's headquarters," he said.
"However, if we check this against the official list of officers from the partner-countries accredited with NATO, it becomes clear that the alliance's reductions are aimed exclusively at the Russian mission and at de facto ousting our diplomats from Brussels," he said.