Russia Issues Ominous Message About Dealing With NATO 'Threat'

The Kremlin's spokesperson on Wednesday called NATO a "threat" to Russia before suggesting there could be a response to recent actions taken by the alliance.

"Of course it is a threat to us. That is how we treat it, and we are constantly taking appropriate measures to deal with it," Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

His comments came when he was asked about a NATO military exercise dubbed "Steadfast Defender 2024," which launched last week. The alliance operation involves around 90,000 service members from 31 NATO allies and Sweden.

NATO officials have said the exercise will test the allies' ability to quickly deploy forces as well as test new defense plans. This led military analysts to suggest it's meant to prepare for the potential of future Russian invasions following the one launched against Ukraine almost two years ago.

"We do not have any further comment on this matter," Peskov told Newsweek in a statement when contacted for comment.

The Steadfast Defender drills will take place in locations ranging from North America to NATO countries that sit close to Russia's borders.

"The alliance has been moving its military infrastructure towards our borders for several decades without ceasing," Peskov said about the war games, according to AFP.

Newsweek reached out to the Kremlin and NATO via email on Wednesday for comment.

Peskov is not the first Russian official to warn about possible consequences as a result of the NATO military exercise. After the exercise was announced earlier this month, Russia's deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, warned it could provoke "military incidents."

Speaking to the Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti in an interview published January 21, Grushko said the "exercises are another element of the hybrid war unleashed by the West against Russia."

He said that "any events of this scale significantly increase the risk of military incidents and further destabilize the security situation."

"But the interests of European security today are of little concern to those who lead NATO," he added. "The main thing for them is to keep this instrument of American influence afloat in the already lost struggle to preserve Western hegemony in the world."

Russian officials and Kremlin-backed media figures have frequently suggested Moscow could attack NATO members for giving Ukraine military and financial aid in its war against Russia.

Dmitry Medvedev, a former president of Russia and the country's current deputy chairman of its security council, said in December 2022 that countries aiding Kyiv could be considered "legitimate military targets."

Peskov has previously said Russia's invasion of Ukraine has developed into a conflict with the entire NATO alliance.

"It began as an operation against the Ukrainian regime and continues, in fact, as a war against NATO, with the de facto involvement of many countries of the alliance, including the United States," he told Newsweek last March.

Update 02/02/24 9:44 a.m. ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from Dmitry Peskov.