MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/. The change of NATO’s secretary general and the appointment of Mark Rutte will have no effect on "NATO’s unbridled expansion" which is Europe’s primary problem, Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev opined.
"No matter how many faces have been shuffled in Brussels, it will have no effect on 'Europe’s Problem No.1' - the existence and unbridled expansion of NATO. Without any drastic decisions on security architecture (or the perimeter of security, as Russian President Vladimir Putin put it), NATO’s existence makes threats and conflicts unavoidable," the senator wrote on his Telegram channel.
Kosachev said that endorsing Rutte is "a scene change in NATO" and pointed out that he expects nothing from the new appointment "for two objective reasons." According to Kosachev, the first is related to the fact that the NATO problem for the continent and Russia is not personal but systemic.
"The existence of one military bloc in Eurasian itself creates a problem for all the others, violates the principle of indivisibility of security as confrontation with Russia has become the sole meaning of its existence," the politician said.
In addition, Kosachev stated that the alliance is not a self-dependent body but "a tool in the hands of one of the world’s mightiest military power."
"And the key mission of the alliance’s decorative leaders is to promote the US’ interests and to keep an eye on NATO’s European members to make sure that they do not dodge this. After Rutte takes office, some public focuses may shift, which is not difficult, given how odious his predecessor has become," the politician said.
The deputy speaker of the upper house of Russia’s parliament added that being the alliance’s chief "has an unfavorable effect on European politicians," citing as an example Rutte’s predecessors - Jens Stoltenberg and Anders Fogh Rasmussen - who "evolved into fanatical hawks and ideological Russophobes from relatively pragmatic figures in their countries."
"As many argue, Rutte is assigned another mission as he is being groomed as a possible counterweight to [US presidential hopeful Donald] Trump, who, once in the White House, may behave clumsily towards NATO. And the Dutchman, as we see, will be called upon to safeguard America’s interests in Europe even in defiance of a potential US president’s will. As presidents come and go, but the Atlantic bond with the ‘big brother’ must be unbreakable," Kosachev wrote.
At a meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels, ambassadors of 32 NATO member states approved Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who lost the election in his country, as the alliance’s Secretary General for the next five years. Rutte will replace Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg, who is stepping down after ten years in office, which is record long.