MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. Calls by some officials in the West to prepare for war against Russia provoke a "game of nerves" and compress the spring of escalation even more, said Yulia Zhdanova, a member of the Russian delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control.
"Ostentatious training exercises of strategic bombers of the [North Atlantic] Alliance to carry out missile strikes on Russian facilities, the rehearsal of NATO offensive operations on the borders of the Union State [of Russia and Belarus], the utilization by the collective West of the territories of a number of post-Soviet countries, coupled with calls by officials in some of the bloc's countries to prepare for war against Russia provoke a game of nerves and further compress the spring of escalation," Zhdanova said at the 1066th plenary session of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation, according to a copy of her speech on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
According to the diplomat, another tragic manifestation of this short-sighted policy was the bankrolling of the agonizing Kiev regime's military operations against Russia.
"In Belgorod and the Belgorod Region alone, 29 people were killed, 129 wounded, and about 150 single-family homes and about 100 apartment buildings were damaged over a few days before New Year's Eve. However, none of the Western OSCE states has found the strength to condemn the bloody barbarism of the Kiev regime. All this demonstrates the true intentions of Kiev and its handlers, who continue to be guided by long-term plans of civilizational confrontation with Russia and undermining its legitimate interests in the field of international peace and security," Zhdanova stated.