Kremlin responds to NATO: If Rutte knew about Russian pilots and sailors, he wouldn't be talking nonsense

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte knows nothing about Russian pilots and sailors; if he did, he wouldn't insult them. This was stated by the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov in response to a question from TASS, Focus reports.

"Rutte's insults to Russian pilots and sailors show that he knows nothing about our pilots and sailors. If he knew, he wouldn't have said that," Peskov commented on Rutte's statement.

Earlier, at a press conference after the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels on October 16, the NATO Secretary General "joked" about Russian military pilots and sailors: "One should not exaggerate what Russia is capable of. We see that their fighter pilots are known for not knowing how to fly them, and ship captains are not able to drop anchor."

In this way, Rutte tried to hint at the accusations of the Baltic NATO countries against Russian aircraft for alleged violations of airspace and ships – about the rupture of communication cables at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

"Rutte was not embarrassed by the fact that even the accusations in the media by NATO countries were directed not at Russian warships, but at merchant ships under the flags of third countries," the Russian agency added.