Since our initiative has been already approved, it is now a matter of discussions and debates that cannot be lost in red tape. And the way NATO reacts to Russia’s proposal will show who they really are - rivals, competitors, partners or allies,  Mr. Rogozin thinks. He added, however, that currently NATO is not seen in Russia as a threat. “Still, we do not want a global Nato, we do not want the alliance turn into an international policeman”. During a video conference, Dmitry Rogozin repeatedly warned NATO against accepting Ukraine and Georgia as its possible members for both countries have too many problems to join the alliance. Ukraine has witnessed serious political changes recently and approved further presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. And Georgia cannot become a NATO member for it yet has not handled its disputes with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and according to the NATO charter, a country which has any border issues unsolved cannot join the alliance 

23 April 2010 ã.   Russian-NATO relations “reaches new level, but distrust remains” (RT, 23.04.2010)

Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, has called on the US to withdraw its tactical nuclear weapons from Europe. “We believe that determining the future of tactical nuclear weapons is possible only after they are returned to the territory they came from,” he said. Moscow considers these weapons as strategic ones, Rogozin said. At the same time, the US has “no motivation” to return such weapons, he stressed. The meeting of the Russia-NATO council was supposed to be part of the two-day informal gathering of ministers in Tallinn. But Moscow refused to take part because the alliance’s leadership did not invite Russia to discuss the key issues, Dmitry Rogozin told Kommersant daily 

23 April 2010 ã.   Russia-NATO co-operation on ABM only possible on equal footing – Russian FM

Building an ABM system in Europe is impossible without Russia’s involvement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at news-conference on Thursday. “Co-operation between NATO and Russia on missile defense is only possible if all states are involved. The key thing – and we’ve been saying it for years now – is that if we talk about co-operation, the co-operation should begin with the very first step: with the analysis of the missile threats, with working out the approaches to respond to these threats, and that’s the only way we can talk about co-operation,” he added 

6 April 2010 ã.   Sergey Lavrov's Press Conference in Relation to the Upcoming Signing of a Treaty between Russia and the USA on Measures to Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms

We moved off dead center after the change of administration in the United States. At the meeting of President Medvedev and President Obama in London on April 1, 2009, it was decided to start negotiations for a new full-blown bilateral treaty on strategic offensive arms. The President of Russia approved an interagency delegation to the talks. It worked on the basis of his directives and instructions. The documents were also drafted in an interagency format. The Russian President personally monitored the talks, and repeatedly became directly involved in dealing with the most complicated issues, in particular during his regular meetings and telephone calls with the US President. About fifteen such contacts took place 

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