Kremlin hopes "common sense will prevail" at NATO summit

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Moscow is closely following the NATO summit and hopes that common sense will triumph.

"Of course, we try to find some rational kernel, which can be easily seen, for example, in today’s statements of Mr. Stoltenberg (NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg - TASS) on the need to maintain contacts, on the absence of any immediate threat from Russia and so on," he told reporters on Friday. "We hope that common sense will prevail after all."

Peskov added that Moscow is closely following the summit. "It sparks keen interest, this is extremely important," he said. "Of course, we would like to hope that common sense and political will aimed at avoiding confrontation will gain the upper hand," the Kremlin spokesman said.

"Russia has always been open to dialogue and is interested in cooperation, but only mutually beneficial [cooperation] that takes into account mutual interests," Peskov said.

• "It is absurd to speak about a threat emanating from Russia when dozens of people die in the center of Europe and hundreds of people die in the Middle East daily," the presidential spokesman said.

"Only an absolutely short-sighted organization can distort accents in such a way," Peskov said.
[tass.ru]
8/7/16
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