Russia has no plans to use a naval base in Ukraine's Crimea to stage attacks against other countries, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday.
Russia and Ukraine recently signed an agreement extending the lease on the Russian Black Sea Fleet base in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol for 25 years after the current lease expires in 2017.
Russian warships based in Sevastopol were used in a blockade of the Georgian coast during a brief war between Russia and Georgia over the former Georgian republic of South Ossetia in August 2008.
Answering a question posed by a Kiev University student on the possible use of the base to stage a war against Russia's neighbors, Medvedev said: "Russia will not do it. We are a peaceful country."
He said the system of international relations, which includes Russia's obligations under international conventions and the Helsinki Accords of 1975, were the best guarantees of preventing aggression between states.
"Would we defy international law? Certainly not, because it is not in Russia's interests," the Russian president said.
Medvedev reiterated on Tuesday that the presence of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol was important not only for Russia but also for Ukraine, Europe and NATO in general because it ensured stability and security in the region.
The president said the collapse of the Warsaw Pact in the late 1980s and early 1990s undermined the strategic balance of forces, which led to "tectonic changes on the political map of Europe," and many military conflicts in the region at the time.
"Therefore, the advantages of the presence of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol are obvious for Russia, and, in my opinion, they are equally obvious for Ukraine and Europe because this way we preserve the established risk-sharing system," Medvedev said.
He added that Russia prioritized strategic stability when it offered Ukraine a natural gas discount worth $40 billion for the extension of the lease on the Black Sea Fleet base.
KIEV, May 18 (RIA Novosti)
