"Today we see all signs of an incipient arms race. Despite the assurances that the measures are not provocations but a defensive reaction to changes in the security sector, NATO countries’ practice of military construction evidences something else entirely," Alexander Grushko said at an annual security conference.
The NATO-Russia relations have been complicated over the past years, as NATO has set a sustainable course for the alliance’s expansion by engaging Eastern European states since 2014, justifying the expansion as a response to Russia’s alleged meddling in the Ukrainian conflict. Moscow has repeatedly refuted these allegations.
On December 22, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the NATO grouping near the Russian borders has grown threefold in the past 10 years and eightfold along the country's western borders.