MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/. The North Atlantic Alliance is doing what it accuses Russia of, enhancing its presence in eastern Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday at a press conference following talks with Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio.

The minister noted the concerns expressed by the NATO defense ministers about certain Russia’s actions and their intentions to deploy additional military forces in the eastern part of the alliance, as well as additional naval and air forces. "In response to the fact that the Russian forces are on their territory, they are not invading anywhere, and we are not enhancing any of our presence on the border with NATO member countries, while NATO is doing exactly what it accuses us of," he said.

The most "delicate part" of the statement Lavrov highlighted the passage where, according to him, NATO representatives were concerned "by the very large-scale, unprovoked and unjustified Russian military build-up in and around Ukraine and in Belarus." "It seems to me that the sense of their own superiority and their own infallibility, in my opinion, has been off-limits and unfortunately, our NATO colleagues do not see the line," the minister concluded.