Russia takes countermeasures to protect against NATO expansion: Kremlin

Russia is taking all necessary measures to protect against the aggressive expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called NATO "an aggressive bloc" at a briefing here, saying that its expansion towards the Russian borders has prompted Moscow to "take all necessary countermeasures."

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a documentary produced by US film director Oliver Stone that it is the "worrisome decision-making" in NATO's eastward expansion that makes Russia to take countermeasures, Xinhua reported.

Relations between Russia and the West have been souring since the Ukraine crisis in 2014.

Earlier this month, NATO announced the deployment of 300,000 troops in eastern Europe, which can be put on "high alert" in response to increasing tensions between Russia and Baltic states.

--IANS

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