Russia strongly criticizes NATO’s largest military exercise and warns of new plans to ignite the Cold War in the region
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told the official Russian media agency in statements published on Sunday that the scope of NATO’s exercises in 2024, which are called Steadfast Defender, constitute an irreversible return by the alliance to its Cold War plans.
NATO said on Thursday that it would begin the largest military exercise since the Cold War with the participation of about 90,000 soldiers in a simulation of how US forces would reinforce European allies in countries adjacent to Russia’s borders and on the alliance’s eastern flank if the conflict escalated into a confrontation between two parties that could come close to being rivals.
“These exercises are an additional element in the hybrid war that the West is waging against Russia,” Grushko told the agency.
He continued, saying, “Training on this scale… constitutes NATO’s final and irreversible return to Cold War plans, where the war planning process, resources and infrastructure are prepared for a confrontation with Russia”.
The alliance didn’t explicitly mention Russia by name in its announcement, but NATO’s most prominent strategy document identifies Russia as the greatest and most direct threat to the security of NATO member states.
