Russia expects NATO to explain WikiLeaks report
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The Kremlin was awaiting an explanation from NATO on a WikiLeaks report of alliance plans to protect the Baltic countries from Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.
"We have posed these questions and we expect to get answers. I presume we have the right," Lavrov told a Moscow press conference.
The WikiLeaks report said NATO mapped out plans in January to protect Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania against any possibly attack from Russia.
Lavrov said that, in December 2009, Moscow and Brussels had just resumed their first senior-level meeting of foreign ministers since their ties froze after Russia's war with Georgia in August 2008.
"With one hand, NATO seeks agreement with us on joint partnership, and with the other, it makes a decision that it needs to defend," Lavrov said. "So when is NATO more sincere?"
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen reiterated to reporters that the alliance did not view Russia as an enemy and neither did it pose any threat to Russia.
"We want to move ahead in our relationship and we want to preserve and maintain the positive spirit of the partnership that took place in Lisbon (during the Russia-NATO summit in November)," Fogh Rasmussen said.
The secretary general declined to comment on the leaked confidential reports.
Analysts said the incident demonstrated concern about Russia within the 28-nation military bloc, which may cast a shadow over the proclaimed "reloading" of relations between Moscow and
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