MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/. The Kremlin strongly condemns the refusal to accredit Izvestiya journalists for the NATO summit in Washington, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"Of course, we strongly condemn such discriminatory practices on the part of NATO," he told reporters.

The spokesman added that the decision was an infringement of the rights of media representatives. "This shows that NATO and the relevant services of the alliance resort to discriminatory policies against the media," he emphasized. "This is totally unacceptable and contradicts all standards and principles of information openness and transparency. Even though we expect neither of these from this alliance," Peskov added.

The NATO summit will be held in Washington on July 9-11 to mark the 75th anniversary of the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949. The summit will discuss the creation of a new structure to assist Kiev in Germany's Wiesbaden and building a "bridge to NATO" for Ukraine to become a member of the alliance when it has the political will to do so.