UNITED NATIONS, September 26. /TASS/. NATO decision to reject Russia’s proposal about a moratorium on deploying short-and medium-range missiles came as no surprise to Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said.

"Yes, we familiarized ourselves with the very first reaction, it looks like a compilation of evaluations from previous documents," he said on Wednesday, answering to a TASS question. "It came as no surprise to US."

"The way things are done in diplomacy is to give a formal response, that’s why we expect NATO to respond via relevant diplomatic channels and give us something more substantial than the reaction that we heard today," Grushko said.

"There was nothing new to it, only the well-known theses, that had been imposed on NATO from overseas," he added.

Russia’s Kommersant paper earlier reported citing own sources that Russian President Vladimir Putin had sent a letter to a group of national leaders, including NATO members, suggesting a moratorium on the deployment of short-and medium-range missiles in Europe and other regions.

NATO Spokesperson Oana Lungescu confrmed that NATO Secretary General had received a letter from the Russian authorities, but does not view this as a credible offer due to Moscow’s deployment of the SSC-8 missile.