MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/. Senior Russian lawmaker Alexei Pushkov, who chairs the State Duma foreign affairs committee, said the NATO chief’s words that the alliance wants the Cold War to remain history are just rhetoric.

"Just these days NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said ‘Cold War is history and we want the Cold War remain so," Pushkov reminded speaking at a plenary session of the lower house of parliament. "However, unfortunately, this is rhetoric and NATO’s actions are completely different," he said.

"Drawing new states into NATO [most recently Montenegro] is not history. Opening missile shield bases in Poland and Romania is not history," the lawmaker stressed. "Sending around 4,000 NATO troops to Poland and the Baltic states is unfortunately not history either" and the same refers to "increasing the US military presence in Eastern Europe with $3.5 billion allocated for this," he added.

"The harsh anti-Russian campaign that is underway in NATO states is unfortunately not history," Pushkov said.

Russia’s State Duma is due to pass a statement on Wednesday calling on the parliamentary assemblies of NATO, OSCE and some national parliaments to intensify dialogue over the US missile shield deployment in Eastern and Southeastern Europe.