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NATO actions in Yugoslavia starting point for current conflicts, says Russian senator

MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/. The 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia became a starting point for all current conflicts, including the one in Venezuela, Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Deputy Chairman Andrey Klimov stated on Tuesday during a session of the working group on protecting state sovereignty.

He noted that the session in the form of a video link between Moscow and Belgrade takes place on a significant day in the history of international relations. "Exactly twenty years ago, for the first time since the Cold War had ended, NATO approached Russia’s borders by including three new member countries - Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic," the senator explained.

According to Klimov, the US bombing of Yugoslavia, which took place from March 24 to June 10, 1999, undermined the so-called Helsinki Accords, which established principles of peaceful international order in Europe. "And, of course, this de-facto war on the European continent opened a Pandora’s Box and led to various changes related to forceful arrangement of state borders," he stressed. "Even now, when NATO countries call for a military resolution of conflicts in such countries as Venezuela… These are all links in the chain that started with the events twenty years ago.".

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