MOSCOW, October 21. /TASS/. NATO brought its relations with Russia to their lowest point in the entire history and effectively buried the Russia-NATO Council by its own efforts, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.
"The North Atlantic bloc and its Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg personally did a great job. They simply drove our relations into a state that they were not in even during the most severe moments of the Cold War. By their unwillingness to jointly look for ways for de-escalation, they effectively buried the Russia-NATO Council. In these circumstances, it is impossible and pointless to work with the Alliance on threats and challenges to regional and global security," she noted.
Zakharova underscored that the Alliance itself rejected any practical cooperation with Russia and any military contacts.
The last meeting of the Russia-NATO Council took place on July 5, 2019, and it has never convened since due to the lack of discussion agenda.
On October 6, NATO announced the reduction of the Russian mission from 20 to 10 people: eight diplomats had their accreditation withdrawn, while 2 vacant positions were eliminated. On October 18, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that Russia suspends its NATO mission, as well as the NATO Information Office in Moscow and the NATO Military Liaison Mission Moscow.