MOSCOW, September 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s response to NATO’s plans for building up its presence in eastern Europe, should they be adopted at the alliance’s summit in Wales, will be “unequivocally negative”, Russia’s representative at the alliance, Aleksandr Grushko told Euronews in an interview, published on the official page of the Russian Foreign Ministry on Facebook.

“We make no secret of our attitude,” he said. “We have repeatedly voiced our concerns over NATO’s growing activity along Russian borders - on the ground, in the air and on the sea. We find this worrisome for several reasons. Firstly because there are no grounds for such an upsurge in NATO’s activity.

Grushko said that the fears some East European members of NATO were expressing over their security were absolutely groundless.

“We have proved more than once that all so-called facts NATO countries and European capitals have been using are not facts but forgeries,” the diplomat said. “There have been no troop build-ups or movements of military hardware that might have been described as destabilizing. There are very many things that I would classify as phobias. And deployment of tanks and additional combat contingents are not exactly what one may call the best remedy for phobias. Many countries should take a realistic look at the problems that exist in their societies.”

Russia’s NATO envoy also said that in the current situation NATO was about to take a course that might considerably weaken regional and global security.

“On the one hand, NATO is beginning military preparations against Russia. On the other, NATO is ruining opportunities for cooperation with Russia on issues where NATO will not be self-sufficient or effective without cooperation with all international actors, including Russia,” he said.