...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
military alliance.
Shoigu said at a meeting of the ministry’s board on Tuesday that Russia was concerned about recent NATO moves aimed at involving the two countries in the US-led alliance’s activities for such measures would undermine global security.
"A treaty was signed in May that provides for [Sweden and Finland’s] full participation in the exercises of the alliance and the possibility of using its command-and-control systems for troops and weapons," Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Shoigu as saying.
"In exchange, NATO received unrestricted access to the airspace and territorial waters of these countries," Shoigu said, adding that "such steps by Western colleagues lead to the destruction of the existing system of global security and generate even greater mistrust, forcing us to take response measures."
The Russian defense minister also said last week’s summit in Helsinki between President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
and President Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...could lead to deeper military cooperation between Moscow and Washington as well as NATO countries.
NATO member states, largely made up of Western European countries, have significantly increased their military activities near Russia’s western borders in recent years.
Russia, realizing that security threat under its nose, has held several military drills to maintain preparedness, and the NATO countries have then pointed to those drills as signs that Russia has aggressive intentions.