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Kremlin hopes "common sense will prevail" at NATO summit

Vladimir Putin's press secretary considers it absurd to speak of a "threat emanating from Russia when dozens of people die in the center of Europe and hundreds of people die in the Middle East daily"

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Moscow is closely following the NATO summit and hopes that common sense will triumph.

"Of course, we try to find some rational kernel, which can be easily seen, for example, in today’s statements of Mr. Stoltenberg (NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg - TASS) on the need to maintain contacts, on the absence of any immediate threat from Russia and so on," he told reporters on Friday. "We hope that common sense will prevail after all."

Peskov added that Moscow is closely following the summit. "It sparks keen interest, this is extremely important," he said. "Of course, we would like to hope that common sense and political will aimed at avoiding confrontation will gain the upper hand," the Kremlin spokesman said.

"Russia has always been open to dialogue and is interested in cooperation, but only mutually beneficial [cooperation] that takes into account mutual interests," Peskov said.

"It is absurd to speak about a threat emanating from Russia when dozens of people die in the center of Europe and hundreds of people die in the Middle East daily," the presidential spokesman said.

"Only an absolutely short-sighted organization can distort accents in such a way," Peskov said.

"If the image of an enemy is intensively sought to unleash anti-Russia hysteria and implant Russophobia and, with reliance on this emotional background, deploy new and new aviation groups and land force units, bringing them closer to the Russian borders, then, of course, it will, perhaps, be hardly possible to find some ground for interaction," the Kremlin spokesman said.

Cooperation is possible, if efforts are taken to strengthen confidence-building measures on the continent and fight terrorism as a real threat, Peskov said.

"If in this context the world view, quite consistent, explicit and unambiguous, Russia’s world view coincides with that of NATO, then, of course, there will be a vast field for interaction," the Kremlin spokesman said.

Responding to a question about whether Russia perceived NATO as an enemy, the Kremlin spokesman said: "Russia is not looking for it; it sometimes states its presence."