MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/. The results of the NATO summit in Vilnius have shown that the alliance has fully returned to the Cold War schemes, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"On July 11-12, a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was held in Vilnius. Its results demonstrate that the organization has completely returned to the Cold War schemes, only now for the sake of protecting ‘our one billion’ from the other part of humanity and on the basis of the ideology of dividing the world into democracies and autocracies," the statement said.

"NATO is consistently lowering the threshold for the use of force and building up the nuclear capability in military planning," the ministry said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the United States and its satellites intend to use NATO as "the main instrument of hegemony in world affairs, deterrence of other centers of the emerging multipolar world order."

"The crosshairs of this policy of searching for enemies is aimed at Russia," the ministry said.

It said the US and its allies, as they dream of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia, "are increasing their military presence near Russia's borders, deploying strike weapon systems there, and regularly conducting exercises with an emphasis on offensive training."

The ministry said NATO countries account for more than half of global military expenditures.

"But even this is not enough: Now the members of the bloc will spend at least 2% of GDP on defense. The US military-industrial complex is rubbing its hands: The weapons that were supplied to Ukraine and burned there will have to be replaced for their own needs by purchases from the United States at whopping prices," the ministry said.