MOSCOW, December 19. /TASS/. NATO’s principle of open doors only adds to its own vulnerability, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Sunday.

"NATO’s expansion is a policy of open doors. It did not exist, but later, under [US 42nd President] Bill Clinton - maybe, he needed more votes - the policy of open doors was invented. But it has reached its limits. It runs counter to the alliance’s own interests because any expansion adds to the alliance’s vulnerability," he said.

The Russian diplomat recalled that during the period of Germany’s reunification NATO never said that any state could join NATO. "They said that NATO will not move a single inch to the east. Germany asked the former Soviet Union to allow it to stay a NATO member and a solution was found - I am not ready now to say whether it was a right one. <…> Should the alliance stay within the borders as it promised to the Soviet leaders, then who they would protect themselves from? Where would the threat from the east come from? From Poland or Hungary?," he noted.

Apart from that, in his words, NATO did not take into account the fact that the Baltic countries are linked with the alliance’s territory via the Suwalki corridor. "It stems from NATO’s own actions. And now they are seeking to neutralize this vulnerability by means of deploying additional forces in this region, which is in the exact proximity to St. Petersburg," he stressed.

"If they continue to move in this direction, it will be an obvious path to a scenario we all need to avoid. And it is quite understandable why we have done this (suggested security guarantees by given to us - TASS)," Grushko added.

On Friday, the Russian foreign ministry released two Russian draft agreements in security guarantees from the United States and NATO.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on NATO to begin substantive talks on reliable long-term security guarantees to Russia. He stressed that Russia needs legally binding guarantees because the West has failed to fulfill its verbal commitments.

According to Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov Ushakov told US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan that Moscow was ready to begin talks on draft documents on security guarantees. Russia will be represented at these talks by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov.