Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that his country will suspend the Russian permanent mission at NATO as of November 1.

BREAKING: Russia is suspending its mission to NATO, with the foreign minister saying the move is in response to last week’s expulsion by NATO of eight members of the Russian mission. NATO says they were secretly working as intelligence officers. https://t.co/elLGUaQtG2

— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) October 18, 2021

At a press conference on Monday, Lavrov said that his country is responding to NATO's actions by suspending the work of the Russian permanent mission to NATO which includes the work of the chief military envoy, possibly starting early next month. 

The Foreign Minister also spoke of the contact between the Western military alliance and Moscow that could be concluded through the Russian embassy in Belgium.

"The Russian Federation's extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador in Belgium will maintain emergency contacts with the alliance's headquarters. An ambassador of a NATO member state in Moscow, chosen by the alliance, can perform similar functions," Lavrov said in a statement.

An inevitable breakup

On October 14, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that Moscow had informed the US Under Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, that the deployment of US and NATO military infrastructure in Central Asia was completely unacceptable for Russia.

Russian FM Sergei Lavrov announced on October 12 that NATO's attempt to redeploy its forces in other parts of the region aims to heat up the situation in Asia.

It should be noted that relations between Russia and NATO are witnessing rising tensions caused by the Organization's bolstering of its presence next to the Russian borders. This action was considered by Russia as a violation of the formerly agreed-upon 1997 Basic Document with NATO.

In July, Moscow warned Washington of deploying its withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in republics allied with Russia in Central Asia.