#10
MP ROGOZIN: NATO POSES NO MILITARY THREAT TO RUSSIA

MOSCOW, MAY 13, 2003. /From RIA Novosti correspondent Viktoria Prikhodko/--NATO is currently posing no military threat to Russia, Chairman of the State Duma /the Parliament's lower chamber/ international relations committee Dmitri Rogozin stated at a press conference on Tuesday.

"NATO has so far lost the significance laid on it at the beginning," he said. According to Rogozin, the NATO is "a friable block" and the USA not in the least takes the organisation into consideration." Rogozin recalled that on Tuesday Moscow was hosting a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council at the ambassadorial level as well as a meeting of First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Lubov Sliska with NATO Secretary General George Robertson. The Chairman of the State Duma international relations committee believes co-ordination of weapon sales to "disturbing" regions will be on the agenda of these meetings.