Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during an event with students at the Belarusian State University yesterday, ridiculed NATO’s claims that it is strictly a defensive alliance. In his opening remarks to the students, he said, among other things: “Recently, a White House official said yet again that neither Russia nor anyone else, for that matter, should be apprehensive of NATO because it is only a defensive organization. This is ridiculous. Adults should be ashamed to say nonsense like this. At the time of the Warsaw Treaty, it was clear who NATO was defending itself against. The same was true for the Warsaw Treaty organization, which defended itself against NATO. A distinct line was drawn between these two military and political blocs. Neither the Warsaw Treaty nor the Soviet Union exist any longer, but eastwards expansion by NATO has already occurred five times. If throughout this recent period, they, as they believe and say, were a defensive organization, who were they defending themselves against? If you advance, expand into new territories, deploy your armed forces and military infrastructure there, this is not defense, it’s the opposite.” (https://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1820268/)