Putin Against Forcing Process To Create Joint Bodies With Nato

During a joint press conference with the Greek prime minister, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that plans to create a joint Russia-Nato body, which would lead to a "20" rather than "19+1" format, should be "realised" by all the alliance's members. Vladimir Putin said that the process should not be artificially forced and that none of the appropriate stages should be skipped. Russia, the president announced, was quite ready to continue this work calmly in the current atmosphere of good will. The Russian leader again underlined that Russia's participation in the international anti-terrorism coalition did not mean that Russia was "knocking on Nato's door" or that it wanted to become a full-fledged member of the alliance. However, the Russian head of state believes that Russia should take "direct part" in the solution of problems in the security sphere.