Knyaz noted that the chief of General HQ of the RF Armed Forces had given the go-ahead to the conduct of landing operation stage on the ground “Opus”, which is temporally rented by Russia. “Our north neighbour talks not much about cooperation with NATO, but conducts two-three times more actions with Alliance than Ukraine,” said Knyaz.
According to him, “in some senses Russians have more close contacts with NATO.” “If we only say that our ship will come out for participation in NATO’s exercises “Active efforts” by the end of the year, Russian ship “Pytlivy” is already there,” Knyaz pointed out.
The vice-admiral underscored that Russia is one step ahead of Ukraine as regards cooperation with the Alliance. “And nobody cries ‘Russia – without NATO,” noted he.
