MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. The Kremlin won’t make forecasts about whether current changes in the world could cause NATO to collapse but a "romantic period" in the relations between Russia and NATO is over, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.
"It’s not for us to say," he said, when asked if current geopolitical changes could prompt a collapse of NATO.
"We used to have a romantic period in the relations with NATO," the spokesman said. As an example, he referred to a Russia-NATO summit in Italy in 2002 where the sides signed a declaration on plans for building relations between Russia and the alliance.
"It’s water under the bridge," Peskov said. "That romantic period is over, and romanticism has been replaced with the daily grind."
"The daily grind, the routine relations are that NATO was conceived and created as an instrument of confrontation and still performs these functions as it essentially can’t perform any other functions," he said. "That’s how we used to regard NATO and how we are regarding NATO."
US President Joe Biden earlier said that Russia sought to undermine NATO’s unity. He said these were the intentions of Russian President Vladimir Putin because it’s easier for Moscow to confront 30 separate countries than 30 countries that are united.