ATHENS, October 21. /TASS/. Russia is ready to hold negotiations with NATO, if the alliance shows its real interest in such interaction, Speaker of the Federation Council (the upper house of Russia’s parliament) Valentina Matviyenko said on Thursday in Athens where she is taking part in the European conference of the heads of parliaments.

"How long can an illusion be created and Russia’s cooperation with NATO be simulated? In actual fact, this cooperation has been absent for many years now and there has been no aspiration for such interaction," the speaker of the Federation Council said.

"We have taken measures in response and made the situation clear. However, we are ready, if NATO displays its genuine interest and offers a roadmap in the areas, in which they are ready to cooperate with Russia, and shows its sincere desire for interaction," she stressed.

The top senator said that the Russian Foreign Ministry had been right in its decision to suspend Russia’s mission to NATO in response "to such an unfriendly step" by the military bloc. "It is necessary to tell the truth: there is no cooperation and no desire. NATO does not consult with us even in instances when this must be the case," Matviyenko specified.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced on October 18 that Russia would suspend its mission to NATO from November, following the military bloc’s decision to withdraw the accreditation of eight Russian diplomats. He also said that the work of the NATO military liaison mission and information office in Moscow would be suspended.

NATO announced on October 6 that it had cut the staff of the Russian mission at the alliance from 20 to 10 members, revoking the accreditation of eight diplomats and abolishing two vacant positions. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization told the Russian diplomats to leave Brussels by late October.