Russia's Security Actions No Threat to Countries Unlike NATO's Expansion

The Kremlin spokesman said that Russia's actions aimed at ensuring the country's national security didn't threaten other countries.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia's actions to ensure national security do not threaten other countries, while the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) movement toward Russia's borders highlights the alliance's aggressive nature, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

"In terms of national security, Russia is acting within its national borders and these actions certainly do not threaten anyone else. However, the process of moving NATO's military infrastructure once again toward our borders is an obvious fact," Peskov told reporters.

NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg accused Russia of triggering NATO's "biggest reinforcement of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War" in an interview with The Times published Monday. UK Permanent Representative to NATO Adam Thomson told the newspaper that some 300,000 troops would be impacted by the reinforcement to reduce response times to two months.

"Such statements by the NATO secretary general simply testify once again of the aggressive nature of this organization," Peskov stressed.

"Let us not forget that the organization was created not for peacekeeping, but for aggressive action. This aggressive nature of the organization, despite the fact that there are no blocs vis-a-vis NATO anymore… is impossible to eradicate because of structural, ideological and political precursors to the creation of this organization."