MOSCOW, June 25. /ITAR-TASS/. Attempts to deter and isolate Russia are absurd and go against fundamental European security interests, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said.

“The current crisis in Europe is a direct result of the policy some of our Western partners pursued in the past several decades. The Russian Federation warned many times that attempts to build the entire system of European security by their own templates without taking into account the vital interests of their partners were doomed to failure,” Meshkov said at the Annual Security Review Conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Wednesday, June 25.

“Essentially nothing was done to enforce the principle of indivisible security and respect for the sovereign interests of other states. Key agreements and top-level declarations to this effect remain just declarations,” he said.

“We can see a consistent policy aimed at creating regions of so-called ‘controlled chaos’. One of them was Ukraine where direct interference in internal political processes of an independent state took place,” the diplomat said.

Meshkov stressed that “attempts are being made to reformat the existing security system” under the pretext of Ukrainian crisis. “NATO forces are being pulled towards the Russian border and more personnel are taking part in exercises announced earlier,” he said.

The deputy minister spoke of “anti-Russian hysteria which sometimes goes out of proportion, especially over the situation in Ukraine” and noted that “we hear moralizing speeches mainly from representatives of the states that not so long ago bombed Iraq and Libya which are once again on the verge of survival as independent states”.

“Russia’s fault is that it warned of the erroneousness of such policy and dared state its own point of view, pursue an independent foreign policy, defend its national interests and protect the rights of Russian people,” the diplomat said.

“In defiance of logic and common sense, attempts have been stepped up to ‘deter’ and ‘isolate’ Russia - an absurd goal, given the level of interdependence in the modern world. And it’s not only absurd but also runs contrary to the fundamental European security interests,” Meshkov said.

He also noted that “counter-terrorism and anti-narcotic cooperation and assistance programs for Afghanistan have been phased down due to considerations of political expediency”.