Spotlight: Russia's massive military maneuvers signal strong message to West

As a round of large-scale combat readiness drills wrapped up Saturday, Russia has sent a strong and clear message to the West that the military confrontation is not a good option for regional peace and differences should be resolved peacefully.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Monday to start a six-day snap inspection of combat readiness across the country's military districts, in a bid to evaluate the armed forces' capabilities and ensure Russia's military security.

The maneuvers have drawn widespread attention amid increasing NATO military actions near Russian borders.

After the drills finished, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov stressed that Moscow is not seeking confrontation with anyone.

"Moscow only acted in a defensive way to ensure its national security. We are not seeking confrontation with NATO. We would like our cooperation to develop," Antonov said in response to reports spooking the snap drills.

Andrei Kartapolov, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, also said Russia will continue to hold surprise drills, but their scale and purpose should not alarm anyone.

"Russia would like to return to the level of trust and transparency that we used to enjoy with our neighbors and partners not so long ago," Kartapolov said.

Russia's relations with the West have been stranded following the sanctions imposed on Moscow after its takeover of Crimea last March and alleged involvement in the Ukraine crisis.

Ahead of the first anniversary of Crimea's incorporation into Russia, the United States and its NATO allies launched a series of joint drills in the Black Sea.

Moreover, the White House has announced a plan to deploy about 3,000 soldiers to Eastern Europe for training exercises with forces from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to reassure its European allies that are concerned about potential Russian military threats.

Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov slammed NATO for its increasing military activities near Russian borders, and in what seems to be a reaction from the Kremlin, three fleets of the Russian Navy held military exercises simultaneously as the NATO drills went on.

While tensions between Russian and the West are running high, military experts ruled out the possibility of any accidents to be triggered.

"The drills will not cause any accidents with NATO, because Russia planned the drill carefully, and they were conducted within Russian territory," Viktor Litovkin, a retired colonel and a military observer of the TASS news agency, told Xinhua.

Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the Russian magazine National Defense, echoed the view, saying, "There is no chance the drills may spark any incidents. They are conducted in the Russian territory and sea space, and NATO is not to deliberately cause any incidents in those areas."

Litovkin said the West might have misread the gesture of goodwill from Moscow.

"Russia has tried for many years to send the West peaceful messages but the West has read them as signs of weakness," he said.

Meanwhile, U.S. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke also denied that his country's military exercises near Russian borders had increased tensions.

"I would disagree," he told reporters Friday when asked whether the U.S. exercises in Estonia, a NATO member country bordering Russia, had raised tensions given the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and the current rift between the West and Russia.

"Our activity on the territory of NATO member states has a degree of transparency that is hard to criticize," Rathke said. Endi