MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/. The NATO summit in Vilnius brought the European Union’s entire military domain under its control and destroyed Europe’s last chance for autonomy, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Russia’s Channel One late on Thursday.

"[The summit in] Vilnius buried Europe’s remaining hopes for autonomy under a layer of asphalt. The entire military domain of the European Union was harnessed to serve tasks that are being set by a different Brussels-based entity, by NATO," the deputy minister told the Big Game TV show.

"Expansion is a tool that NATO uses to fuel confrontation. Regrettably, history demonstrated to us that NATO cannot exist without an adversary, it will simply lose the reason to exist if there is none," Grushko added.

In this regard, the diplomat recalled a conversation between George Bush and Helmut Kohl, in which the former US president notes that when Europe realizes that the Cold War is over, a legitimate question will arise about "What the US troops are doing here?"

"If you ask me how to briefly describe the outcome of the Vilnius summit for the European Union and Europeans, [I would say that] Europe has become a vassal [of the US]. Many pundits have already expressed this view," Grushko said.

In his opinion, this outcome was "no surprise.".