Russia concerned over increasing NATO contingent on eastern flank

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the number of NATO forces in Eastern and Central Europe has grown 2.5 times since February 2022.

His words came at the meeting of the joint board with the military department of Belarus, according to Gazeta.Ru.

“In Eastern and Central Europe, as well as in the Baltic countries, armed forces of non-regional NATO states are deployed,” Shoigu said.

He specified that new multinational battalion tactical groups are being created in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

The Minister also noted that the number of NATO grouping now stands at more than 30 thousand people and may continue to increase in the near future.

According to Shoigu, NATO wants to move from containing the Russian Federation through earlier basing to creating a full-scale collective defence system on the "eastern flank" near the Russian borders.

He is convinced that this was a consequence of the adoption of a new NATO strategic concept, in which Russia was called the main source of security threats.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee of Senior Officials of the Arctic Council, Nikolai Korchunov, said that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, in his words about the role of the Russian Federation in the Arctic, is trying to form the image of an enemy out of Russia.