We expect greater intelligibility from our partners in NATO. The dual existence of the alliance – between the past and the future – has become protracted too long. Unfortunately, the discussions about the preparation of a new strategic concept of NATO are evidence of this. I cannot but agree with Wolfgang Ischinger and Urlich Weisser, who believe that the report of the Wise Men’s group prepared in terms of a contribution to a new strategic concept of NATO could hardly serve as a strategic response to the Russian initiatives on European security and that a sustainable security architecture in Europe will appear only if NATO succeeds in correctly building its relations with Russia. We would like to see the alliance complete its political transformation into a modern organization in the field of security and stand ready to participate in equal network cooperation with other players, including Russia and the CSTO, with absolute respect for the norms of international law, primarily the Charter of the United Nations. The most important moment in our practical relations with NATO is the necessity to achieve real progress in combating the Afghan drug traffic, which is directly connected with the financing of extremism and terrorism and creates a threat to international peace, which already starts manifesting in Russia and many other countries 

September 21, 2010   Dmitry Medvedev: Democracy must effectively and fully perform a wide variety of functions, including police functions

"Democracy must effectively and fully perform a wide variety of functions, including police functions. The 1999 OSCE Charter for European Security called for the establishment of a political and legal environment that allows police to perform their tasks in accordance with the principles of democracy and the rule of law. Nevertheless, the Charter links the performance of these tasks with support for a strong and independent judiciary and a humane prison system. All this is incorporated into our approach. Those who follow events in Russia will know that, as President, I deal with these issues regularly. I think that the fourth distinctive feature of democracy is its high levels of culture, education, communication and information exchange. The more educated people are, the more cultured they are, the more freely they can judge and adopt independent positions. A free democratic society remains a society of well-trained, educated people, people with a high level of culture" 

September 21, 2010   Parliamentary Elections in Afghanistan (press release)

Parliamentary elections took place on September 18 in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. According to Independent Election Commission data, final election results will be announced at the end of October after the completion of the counting and adjudication processes. The very fact of holding the parliamentary elections in a complicated politico-military situation in Afghanistan, despite the efforts of extremists to derail the election, is doubtless a great achievement of the government and security agencies of Afghanistan. Russia supports the formation of a newly constituted parliament of national unity which in cooperation with the other branches of power and the President would contribute to the rise of Afghanistan as a peaceful, independent and prosperous state 

September 20, 2010   Nesterenko: 'We presume that a real “reset” of the RNC will occur if the basic principles of our cooperation enshrined in the Rome Declaration of 2002 are observed'

An informal meeting of foreign ministers from the Russia-NATO Council (RNC), with the participation of Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, will be held in New York on September 22. The upcoming meeting has great significance for the joint search for a constructive, unifying agenda in Russia-NATO relations, which largely predetermine the climate in the Euro-Atlantic space. At the event it is planned to discuss priorities for cooperation in those areas where the security interests of Russia and NATO are objectively the same, and cooperation brings real “added value.” It is about confidence building measures; the fight against terrorism and WMD proliferation, response to natural and manmade disasters; cooperation on Afghanistan; the exchange of experience in reforming the armed forces, on the anti-piracy track, etc. An exchange of views will take place on the preparation of NATO’s new Strategic Concept 

September 11, 2010   Eastern European, Baltic states want rift between NATO, Russia (Kyiv Post)

Russia's permanent envoy to NATO on Saturday accused "some Eastern European and Baltic states" of plotting to "sharply antagonize" Russia and NATO by seeking to make the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) put Russia's move to deploy S-300 surface-to-air missiles in Abkhazia on the agenda of its September 15 meeting. "It will be the first meeting of the [NRC] after the vacations, and we can see that active attempts are being made to sharply antagonize relations between Russia and the alliance. Those attempts are being made by some Eastern European and Baltic states," Dmitry Rogozin told Interfax. He argued that the S-300 issue was a mere pretext. "I am convinced that it is no more than pure scheming, an attempt to draw attention to themselves and force NATO to remain what it has been for all its past 60 years - a bloc spearheaded against the USSR and then Russia," he said. Russia is open to dealing with any issue in the NRC, including security for the South Caucasus and the situation in Georgia, Rogozin said 

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