The Foreign Ministry explained NATO’s decision to hold the largest exercises

Steadfast Defender exercises mark NATO’s return to Cold War patterns – Russian Foreign Ministry

The organization of the Steadfast Defender-2024 exercise by the North Atlantic Alliance means that the bloc is finally and irrevocably returning to the Cold War schemes, said Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Grushko in an interview with RIA Novosti.

Earlier it was reported that NATO plans to hold “the largest in decades” next week. The duration of the exercises will be several months, about 90 thousand military personnel from 31 countries will be involved in them.

Grushko said that such NATO maneuvers can be regarded as another element of the West’s hybrid war against Russia.

“The military planning process, resources and infrastructure are geared towards confrontation with Russia,” the diplomat said, noting that the concept of the exercises is fully consistent with this approach, and the exercises themselves are being prepared “in an artificially heated environment of military psychosis.”

He noted that the heads of the military departments of Germany and Sweden, as well as the chairman of the NATO military committee, spoke about a possible war with Russia.

“The goal is clear: by demonizing Russia, intimidating the average person, to justify the unbridled increase in military spending and the completely failed policy of supporting the Kyiv regime with the aim of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia. And at the same time, force the Europeans to join the arms race even more energetically, to the delight of the American military-industrial complex,” said the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In early December, US President Joe Biden said that Russia “may attack” members of the North Atlantic Alliance after its victory over Ukraine. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he wanted to wake up German society because there was a “danger of war.” According to Pistorius, Russia allegedly threatens the Baltic countries and may one day “attack one of the NATO countries.” He added that, according to Bundeswehr experts, this would be possible “in a time period of five to eight years.” However, Pistorius does not consider such a conflict possible right now. In this regard, the German Defense Minister called for precautionary measures to be taken, to strengthen the defense industry, to introduce compulsory military service and to open access to the armed forces for soldiers without a German passport.

Moscow has repeatedly stated that Russia does not threaten NATO, and the Kremlin plans to quickly end the conflict on the territory of Ukraine.