MOSCOW, April 3 (Reuters) – Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s powerful Security Council, said on Friday that Moscow should drop its “tolerant attitude” towards Ukraine’s possible EU membership.
“The EU is no longer just an economic union. It can transform, and rather quickly, into a full-blown military alliance, one overtly hostile to Russia, and in some ways worse than NATO,” Medvedev said.
“It’s time to drop the tolerant attitude toward our neighbors joining what is now a military-economic European Union.”
Medvedev said that he did not believe the United States would leave the NATO military alliance but that Washington could make symbolic moves such as cutting the number of U.S. troops deployed to other NATO members.
Medvedev said, though, that the obvious divisions within NATO could push the EU towards becoming more than simply an economic union.
(Reporting by Marina Bobrova; Writing by Anastasia Teterevleva; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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