NATO hits out at Russian `propaganda`

Brussels: NATO hit back Thursday at accusations by Moscow that the Western alliance was in violation of international law and accused Russia of fomenting "propaganda and disinformation" over the crisis in Ukraine.

"No, of course we haven`t violated the Rome Declaration and I`m actually surprised that Russia can claim that NATO has violated its commitments because Russia is violating every principle and international commitment it has made," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. "First and foremost the commitment not to invade other countries," he said, speaking at a joint news conference with Estonia`s new prime minister Taavi Roivas. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier on Thursday warned NATO that it should not deploy additional forces in the alliance`s Eastern European member states as this would violate its agreements with Russia. NATO has in the past weeks deployed AWACS reconnaissance aircraft over Poland, and the United States has sent additional fighter jets to step up NATO`s air patrols over the Baltic states. Rasmussen said NATO had "not received questions from Russia" about the deployments and that "anyway, these accusations are just propaganda and disinformation." Earlier this week, NATO said it was suspending all practical cooperation with Russia and warned that Moscow forces, currently massed on the Ukraine border, could invade wide swathes of the country in a matter of days.