MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. Russia considers statements on deploying US bases with nuclear weapons in Slovakia as a provocation, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Wednesday.

"I absolutely rule this out because the alliance undertook under the Russia-NATO Founding Act not to deploy nuclear weapons outside the countries where they were not deployed and not to create infrastructure for this. We qualify this as a provocation," he stressed, commenting on statements by Slovakian politicians.

Member of the National Council (one-house parliament) of Slovakia, leader of the People's Voice party Peter Marcek earlier alleged in an interview with Izvestia daily that the United States was holding secret talks on creating airbases on the territory of the republic where nuclear weapons might be deployed.