Russia: NATO suspension 'runs counter common sense'

MOSCOW, March 7 (UPI) -- On Friday, the Russian government denounced NATO's decision to suspend its military ties with Russia, calling the move "counter common sense."

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich commented on NATO's suspension Friday:

"NATO’s decision proves of a biased and tendentious approach towards studying the causes and effects of the events in Ukraine ...

“The intention to restrict cooperation in reacting to common threats and challenges -- terrorism, piracy, crises, extremism, natural calamities and man-made catastrophes, Afghanistan and Syrian chemical weapons -- runs counter common sense...

“We consider the attempts to introduce ‘NATO’s factor’ in the difficult and fragile situation in Ukraine very dangerous. They make the situation tenser and wreck prospects for normalizing the situation."

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced Wednesday that NATO was taking "a number of immediate steps" in response to Russia's incursion into Ukraine in order to "send a clear message: Russia's actions have consequences."

Those consequences included the suspension of the first NATO-Russia joint mission that was set to provide maritime escort for U.S. vessel Cape Ray as it transports Syrian chemical weapons for at-sea destruction as well as the suspension of all NATO staff-level civilian and military meetings with Russia.

[ITAR-TASS News Agency]