In mid-January, NATO announced the launch of the Baltic Sentry mission to patrol the Baltic region after key submarine cables there were damaged last year.
However, according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko, the US-led military bloc's ambition to turn the Baltic Sea into an "internal lake" will not succeed, because "Russia will not allow that to happen" - Mr. Grushko said on Russia 24 channel.
"We will do everything necessary to ensure that our interests... in the Baltic Sea region are reliably protected," the Russian diplomat stressed, while confirming that he was referring to the military aspect.
As for specific countermeasures, Russia will make decisions based on the activities of NATO and its members in the region, the deputy minister added.
Mr Grushko expressed skepticism about the ability of the 10 or so ships deployed by NATO in the Baltic Sentry mission to control the entire region. However, he called for close monitoring of “statements and actions of adversaries” in the region.
Moscow wants "the Baltic Sea to become a sea of cooperation, a sea of interaction, where trade is carried out through centuries-old shipping routes" - the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister emphasized.
Last year, Nikolay Patrushev, former head of Russia's Security Council and now an adviser to President Vladimir Putin, warned that "the West is trying to deprive Russia of access to the Baltic Sea." He said that NATO's new members Sweden and Finland were being used to turn the region into "the bloc's internal sea."
