Russia preparing "adequate" response to NATO expansion: FM

Russia is preparing an "adequate" response to the expansion of NATO toward its borders, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday.

"We do not hide that we have a negative attitude toward the NATO policy of expanding its military infrastructure toward our borders," Lavrov said at a press conference with his Finnish counterpart Timo Soini.

Russia has announced the deployment of three new divisions near its western borders as one of its measures in response to NATO's building missile defense systems in Romania and Poland and the signing of an accession protocol with Montenegro.

Lavrov said that NATO used the Ukraine crisis and Russia's reaction to Kiev's attempts to discriminate against ethnic Russians in the east of the country "to invent a new pretext for the existence of the alliance."

The diplomat ruled out the possibility of Russia's attacking any NATO member states, which he said was an excuse used by the United States to deploy more troops and weapons to maintain its control over Europe.

Russia also disapproved of the NATO policy of involving other states in its military activities, Lavrov said, commenting on NATO BALTOPS 2016 military exercises, which started in Finland earlier on Monday.

Soini, for his part, said the exercises, which Finland has participated in since 1993, have the goal of strengthening Finland's defense capacity and were not aimed against anybody. Endi