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Russia regularly warns that NATO’s actions endanger security — Foreign Ministry

Russia points to the undesirable effects on European security and to the consequences of careless and provocative actions by NATO near Russia’s borders, including those in the Black Sea region, Maria Zakharova said

MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. Moscow regularly warns the NATO countries of the risks to European security their actions in the region entail, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Thursday.

"We regularly inform and warn our partners of the risks to military and political stability in the Euro-Atlantic region, which their actions entail. We point to the undesirable effects on European security and to the consequences of careless and provocative actions by NATO near Russia’s borders, including those in the Black Sea region," she said.

Zakharova said that apart from the recent incident involving a US spy plane, which crossed the flight path of an Aeroflot passenger liner over the Black Sea, the NATO countries were creating many other risks to security in the region. In particular, Zakharova mentioned NATO’s military exercises and supplies of weapons to Ukraine, including weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements.

The Russian Foreign Ministry official described as a "kingdom of crooked mirrors" the accusations of Russia’s allegedly aggressive actions towards neighboring countries.

"It is not Russia that is moving its armed forces towards the countries with which it has no common borders. As a matter of fact, NATO has expanded to the territory of Russia, to the Russian borders. It is NATO that holds military exercises in countries neighboring on Russia. And it is NATO that is building up military contingents in these countries. In the meantime, we are in our own territory and all of our actions are taken in the territory of our country," Zakharova said.