The Alliance noticed that Russia started to hold the unannounced military drills under the pretext of inspection of combat readiness of its troops. These drills impair Russia’s relations with NATO. Deputy Secretary General of NATO Alexander Vershbow stated this, Radio Svoboda "reports.
There were more than a dozen of these drills over the past two years, he said during the visit to Romania.
Vershbow added that NATO is not satisfied with such inspections since the end of Cold War.
According to Vershbow, NATO would like to enhance the transparency and predictability in relations with Russia, which are now "very poor" and to stabilize them.
However, if Russia is also interested in stability and predictability, these "combat readiness drills" do not lead to this goal.