Europe has not learned its lesson about putting NATO bases near Russia — Kremlin

The Kremlin is disappointed that Europe has not learned its lesson about moving NATO's infrastructure closer to Russia’s state borders, as this was one of the reasons for the current state of conflict, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

Peskov’s statement follows a proposal from Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda to set up permanent NATO bases near the state border of Russia and nix a relevant agreement between Russia and NATO from 1997.

The Russian presidential spokesman pointed to previous attempts by NATO to deploy its military infrastructure near Russian borders.

"This was one of the reasons that led to the current situation. It seems that Europeans do not realize this mistake," he continued.

"It’s extremely important to realize under the current conditions that the Russian military infrastructure has never shifted towards Western Europe, it has always moved in the opposite direction," Peskov said. "It’s certainly regrettable that the Europeans fail to realize this mistake."

Lithuanian President Nauseda said in an interview with the British daily The Times this week that the 1997 Russia-NATO agreement, which envisages non-deployment of nuclear weapons and substantial combat forces on the territory of new alliance members on a permanent basis, was "dead.".