He noted that in view of the actions of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Russia is obliged to beef up its military might of its nuclear forces and to increase the potential of non-nuclear deterrence, including equipment with precision weapons and effective means of destruction.
During a meeting of military chiefs of the Defense Ministry, Shoigu said that another reason is the difficult politico-military situation in the world, TASS news agency reported.
Last Monday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reiterated her country’s complaints about NATO’s approaching Russian borders, referring to the U.S. announcement of joint military exercises on Estonian territory.
According to Zakharova, for “the Pentagon’s war games”, the Baltic nation is nothing more than a field of operations of the Atlantic Alliance in the vicinity of Russia, despite the justifications used to promote cooperation between the Armed Forces of both countries.
She considered that the holding of the maneuvers a few days before the signing of a military agreement between Tallinn and Washington for the mutual supply of fuel to troops only confirms NATO’s intention to create artificial tensions near Russian borders.
The Foreign Ministry representative warned that the North Atlantic military bloc accuses Moscow of “non-transparent actions” and “aggressive behavior,” however, she wrote, the U.S. exercises in Estonia prove the opposite.
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