Moscow accuses NATO of demonising Russia in order to justify alliance's defence plans

Moscow: The statements made by NATO leaders during the Warsaw summit were aimed at demonising Russia to justify the alliance`s defence plans, which have started to expand dramatically, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday.

"The attempts to demonise Russia in order to justify the undertaken steps in the sphere of military construction, pulling attention from the destructive role of the alliance and its certain allies in provoking crises and supporting tension centres in various parts of the world have been gaining much hypertrophied forms," Efe news quoted Zakharova as saying.

"However, even initial analysis demonstrates NATO continues being in some military-political wonderland," Zakharova said.

The alliance continues focusing its efforts on "containment" of a non-existing "threat from the East", Zakharova said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said NATO was ignoring negative consequences and risks to the entire Euro-Atlantic security system that "emerge from Washington`s and Brussels`s deliberate actions to change the existing balance of force, including in the forced implementation of the US/NATO anti-missile plans in Europe".

Russia is expected to study all the decisions made by the NATO leaders during the summit, while the alliance will have to justify during the NATO-Russia Council next Wednesday all the steps taken to boost its military presence near the Russian borders, Zakharova said.