Brussels, 20 October 2021 (dpa/MIA) - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said he regretted Russia's decision to suspend the work of the alliance's office in Moscow in a tit-for-tat response to the withdrawal of Russian diplomats' accreditation to NATO headquarters. At a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday, Stoltenberg said Moscow's move did not serve to promote dialogue or mutual understanding. However, NATO would remain open to dialogue, directly or through the NATO-Russia Council, Stoltenberg said. His comments came after Moscow suspended the work of its permanent representation to NATO in Brussels from the beginning of November. In addition, the NATO military mission in Moscow will not be allowed to continue its work. Moscow's response came after NATO announced it had withdrawn the accreditation of eight Russian diplomats in Brussels claiming they were "undeclared intelligence officers." NATO also said at the time that the maximum staff levels of Moscow's delegation to the alliance would be halved from 20 to 10 in the future. On Wednesday, Stoltenberg stressed that NATO's decision to withdraw the accreditation was based on intelligence findings, adding that the staff concerned were Russian intelligence operatives. "Allies have expressed great concern about these kind of malign activities that we have seen over the last few years," Stoltenberg said. As examples, Stoltenberg mentioned the failed coup attempt in Montenegro in 2016, the nerve agent attack in the English city of Salisbury in 2018, and the attempted hacking of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons the same year.