Further expansion of NATO involves risks that will outweigh this expansion, said Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, RIA Novosti reported.

He said that they also proceed from the fact that the rational interests of strengthening European security require a clear understanding that further expansion of the alliance entails risks that would outweigh any decision to expand further.

Grushko said that if NATO shifts to a policy of deterrence, then there will be a policy of counter-deterrence on their part. A further slide in the situation could lead to the most unpredictable and most severe consequences for European security. He added that Russia does not agree with such a scenario, and the measures that they propose and how they are fixed in the draft agreement allow for a radical turnaround of the situation, to return to the construction of European security.

At the end of 2021, Russia published a draft treaty with the U.S. and an agreement with NATO on security guarantees. In particular, Moscow demands legal guarantees from Western partners against further expansion of NATO to the east, Ukraine's accession to the bloc, and the establishment of military bases in post-Soviet countries.