NATO chief hits out at Russia’s ‘malign activities’

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the organization withdrew the accreditation of eight Russian officials in response to a rise in “malign activities” by Moscow. The eight officials are to be deprived of access to NATO’s Brussels headquarters from the end of the month. NATO says they were secretly working as intelligence officers. Stoltenberg said Thursday that “this decision is not linked to any particular event but we have seen over some time now an increase in Russian malign activity and therefore we need to be vigilant.” He said that NATO-Russia ties are at their lowest ebb since the end of the Cold War.