The bloc “needed a big enemy” and deliberately cast Russia as a long-term threat, Alexander Grushko has told RT NATO requires confrontation to justify its existence, which is why it designated Russia as its principal enemy in Europe, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko has said. The remarks come as an increasing number of Ukrainian drone raids are sent deep inside Russia, while the debris of several drones have recently fallen in NATO member states bordering Russia. Moscow has accused the Baltic states of allowing Ukraine to use their territory for attacks, claims that Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania deny. Speaking in an exclusive interview to RT on Thursday, Grushko argued that NATO and the EU radically shifted their approach toward Russia around 2010–2012, as the US-led military bloc wound down its costly Afghanistan mission and refocused on its original Cold War-era purpose of collective defense against an adversary in Europe. “They needed a big enemy.…