Grushko at NATO
(BRUSSELS2) It is the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Alexander Grushko, who should be appointed to the post of Ambassador Permanent Representative of Russia to NATO, affirms several sources in Moscow. He would thus replace Dmitri Rogozin, who left to take up the post of Deputy Minister of Defense last December. It is another style of relations, probably more classic of Russian diplomacy, that the new representative should establish. Born in 1955, a graduate of the Moscow Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), he is a specialist in disarmament and European cooperation who arrives at this post.
Head of the "security and disarmament affairs" division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1995-1996, he was Russia's chief negotiator at the Vienna Arms Control Forum (1996-2000). In 2011, he became deputy director of the European Cooperation department, then its director in 2002. Files he continues to follow in his position as deputy minister. It follows in particular Medvedev's proposal on European security, as well as the collaboration undertaken with the European Union in operations in Chad (Russian participation in the provision of helicopters) and anti-piracy (coordination with Operation Atalanta ).
In a 2010 interview with the "International life" (the magazine of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), he pleaded in particular for " better quality of relations between Russia and the EU and more effective cooperation with NATO”. Quite recently, however, he indicated that on the anti-missile shield, the balance point had not yet been reached; " the American position does not make it possible to reach an agreement "he said in an interview with our colleagues from Ria Novosti. On his official biography, besides Russian, it is mentioned that he speaks English and Dutch.
Read also: Dimitri Rogozin departs from Brussels to reach Moscow
