We can do without NATO

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on August 25 that if NATO doesn’t need relations with Russia, then it’s welcome, they didn’t really want it. After NATO declared that relations with Russia would no longer be the same and decided not to hold meetings of the Russia-NATO Council until the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia, Russia decided not to participate in some joint military exercises, and now expresses its intention to accept any decision, up to and including termination of cooperation. Speaking with Russia's permanent representative to the alliance, Dmitry Rogozin, Medvedev said that if NATO agrees to a complete severance of relations, then “nothing terrible will happen for Russia.” We, they say, have long sought to develop relations with the alliance, but full-fledged and partnership ones, “and not live in illusions when bases are created around us, more and more states are drawn into NATO, and they repeat to us: “Don’t worry.” “We don’t need such illusions,” Medvedev said. He said that it was not Russia that provoked the events and that it was not to blame for the deterioration of relations. Adding, however, that the severance of relations is an unnecessary development of events, and expressing the hope that “our partners will think about this.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin decided to freeze the implementation of part of the agreements reached during negotiations on accession to the WTO. Negotiations on joining the organization, however, are planned to continue. “Our economy, its individual sectors, including agriculture, bear quite a large burden,” Putin said. “It turns out that we do not see or feel any advantages from membership, if they exist at all, but we bear the burden.”

In any case, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said that over the next few months, or even a year, the government does not see prospects for joining the WTO, although it is one of Russia’s strategic priorities.