MOSCOW, June 7: Russia issued a sharp warning on Wednesday to the United States and ex-Soviet republics looking to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), saying expansion of the bloc into lands the Kremlin considers its backyard would have a ‘colossal’ and negative impact.

In a statement to the Russian parliament, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that ‘membership in Nato for countries like Ukraine or Georgia would mean a colossal geopolitical shift’ and would compel Moscow to respond to safeguard its security and other national interests.

“We evaluate all possible consequences first and foremost from the point of view of the national interest of Russia,” he said.

The lower house of parliament, the Duma, overwhelmingly approved a ‘message’ to the parliament of Ukraine expressing the ‘serious concern’ of the Russian legislature at Kiev’s goal of joining Nato.

Ukraine’s drive to accede to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was a violation of a 1997 Russo-Ukrainian treaty and, if fulfilled, ‘would have negative consequences for the entire range of relations between our two fraternal peoples’, the Duma message said.

Mr Lavrov followed his warning to Ukraine and Georgia with an attack on US strategic policy, saying US plans to deploy low-yield nuclear weapons and mount conventional warheads on intercontinental missiles undermined agreements aimed at containing the spread of dangerous weapons.

He also accused Washington of backtracking on disarmament. ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Mr Lavrov as saying the United States was trying ‘not only to remove the question of disarmament from the world agenda, but also from the public view’.

Analysts said the broadside from two branches of the Russian government signalled that Moscow was fed up with efforts to expand Western influence on its borders.

Shortly after Mr Lavrov spoke, the head of the Russian FSB national security service also rebuked the United States, accusing Washington of double standards.—AFP