Madrid, Europe Brief News – Thousands of people took into the streets of the Spanish capital ahead of a key summit later this week.
Organisers claimed five thousands people joined the march, but authorities in Madrid put the number at 2,200.
Carrying the hammer and sickle flags of the former Soviet Union, they were critical of the alliance’s role in the Ukraine war.
“What we call the Ukraine war is not a war between Russia and Ukraine, it’s a war between NATO and Russia,” claimed Manuel Pardo, a spokesman for a number of anti-NATO movements.
“When the USSR disappeared, what happened was that NATO didn’t disappear as well. In fact, it took advantage of there not being a counterpower to reinforce NATO as an intervention tool.”
One woman at the rally on Sunday was keen to stress the protesters are not in favour of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She said that escalating the conflict is not the answer.
Critics of the demonstration said putting the spotlight on NATO is distracting attention from the real problem, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The war, as well as Sweden and Finland’s bid to join NATO, are set to dominate the Madrid summit on 29-30 June.
