Dear Sergey,

I read with great interest your comments on NATO and global security published in the Guardian, and as Russia’s Minister of Defense, I should hope that others gave careful consideration to the conclusions of your article. 

However I do regret that there will likely be many people who will not give much consideration to Russia’s arguments over its security concerns for several reasons.  Dear Sergey, I hope that you understand that the rest of the world would take these kinds of arguments and pleas for international law much more seriously, if only the commitment within Russia to rule of law could be reaffirmed.  Unfortunately, that has not been the case, and a significant depletion of the country’s soft power appears to be well underway.