Russian PM: West is rekindling the Cold War with NATO moves

U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, gestures during his speech at the Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016.
U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, gestures during his speech at the Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016.

MUNICH — Russia's prime minister accused NATO on Saturday of restarting the Cold War amid increased military maneuvers and troop deployments to countries neighboring Russia, moves the alliance's top official defended as a necessary response to aggression from Moscow.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a meeting of top defense officials, diplomats and national leaders that sanctions imposed after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and new moves by NATO "only aggravate" tensions.

"NATO's policies related to Russia remain unfriendly and opaque — one could go so far as to say we have slid back to a new Cold War," Medvedev said. "On almost a daily basis, we're called one of the most terrible threats either to NATO, or Europe or to the United States."

Speaking after Medvedev, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry fired back that Europe and the United States would continue to "stand up to Russia's repeated aggression" and noted that in addition to a joint focus on Ukraine, Washington plans to quadruple spending to help European security. That will allow the U.S. to maintain a division's worth of equipment in Europe and an additional combat brigade in Central and Eastern Europe.

NATO also announced this past week it would add new multinational reinforcements to beef up defenses of front-line alliance members most at risk from Russia.

Read Sunday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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