Georgia’s accession to NATO may trigger "a terrible conflict" and lead to catastrophic consequences, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with the Kommersant FM radio station, a portion of which was broadcast on Monday.
He pointed out that the 2008 armed conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia, which also involved Russia, could have been prevented. "It was not inevitable," Medvedev stressed.
On July 12, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reiterated NATO’s intention to grant membership to Georgia. However, he did not say when it could happen. At the 2008 NATO summit held in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, member states pledged that Ukraine and Georgia would join the alliance in the future.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in turn, stated that Moscow would view NATO’s further expansion, including the accession of Georgia and Ukraine, highly negatively.
