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NATO enlargement poses a "serious" threat to Russia's security, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told a news conference. Moscow, February 9 (Interfax) - NATO enlargement poses a "serious" threat to Russia's security, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told a news conference in Moscow on Feb. 9.

"We have strong doubts that NATO enlargement will help us feel more secure. The alliance poses quite a serious threat to us," Patrushev said.

However, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen insists that the alliance is not dangerous to Russia, he said.

"Let me remind you that our country was not admitted to NATO when the alliance was established in 1949. The Soviet Union collapsed, but NATO continues to exist and to increase the number of its member states - from 12 to 28," he said.

Patrushev said he "doubted" that Ukraine really wanted to join NATO.

"We have been told that NATO will not grow any bigger. But when we ask them they say that we were told this by people who [headed the alliance] before them," he said.