MOSCOW, Nov 28: Russia was `deceived’ by previous Nato enlargements and considers the expansion of a US defence system in Europe `destabilising’, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Tuesday.

“We were simply deceived, they said one thing and did another,” Mr Ivanov told students during a visit to the north-western Russian city of St Petersburg.

Mr Ivanov said Russia could not comment on the decision by sovereign states to join the alliance, but added that the build-up of military infrastructure in the Baltic states did not help Nato aims of peacekeeping and counter-terrorism.

In an interview published on Tuesday, Mr Ivanov also criticised planned expansion of a US anti-missile defence system in Europe as a `destabilising’ move that Russia would respond to.

The stated reason for expansion `is just cover for an attempt to undermine strategic stability and will have a destabilising influence on Russia’s containment potential’, Mr Ivanov said.

In the interview with “Union State,” a journal devoted to Russia-Belarus relations, Ivanov said that Russia was “not afraid” and would take the changes into account when building up its armed forces.

The Pentagon said in May that the United States is consulting European allies about deploying missile defences in Europe to thwart a Middle Eastern ballistic missile threat.

“I assure you we will find asymmetrical... ways to defend our national interests and guarantee the security of the union state” between Russia and Belarus, Ivanov said.

In 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland were the first former Soviet bloc states to join Nato. Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia joined in 2004.—AFP

Assurance on membership

RIGA: US President George Bush on Tuesday assured the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine that the door to NATO membership was open to them.

“Georgia is seeking NATO membership, and as it continues on the path to reform we will continue to support Georgia's desire to become a NATO ally,” he said in a speech given on his arrival in the Latvian capital for a summit meeting of NATO.—AFP