The Foreign Ministry announced Russia's "extensive" means in response to NATO military planning

Moscow will use all available means to ensure Russia's defense capability against the background of NATO's aggressive aspirations, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said.

"As the President [of Russia Vladimir Putin] said, we will not get involved in an arms race [with NATO], but we will use all the means available to us. They are quite extensive in order to ensure defense capability," said the deputy head of the TASS diplomatic department, commenting on the aggressive aspirations of NATO. "Many decisions have already been announced, and they are being implemented. In particular, we are talking about the creation of the Karelian tank corps, the creation of two military districts — the Leningrad Military District and the Moscow Military District."

"We will carefully look at the evolution of the situation. And if necessary, we will take and implement other decisions that we deem necessary," Grushko stressed.

NATO's hostile policy is based on aggressive military planning, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister stressed.

"The trend of recent years is that quasi-unions are being created within NATO, where countries, combining their military resources, are trying to optimize the military structure in order to be more effective. One thing is obvious to us: all these trends are directed against the security interests of the Russian Federation, driven by Russophobia," the Deputy Foreign Minister said.

"For us, of course, the most important thing is that such a hostile policy is based on hostile military planning, which we have to take into account and will take into account in our defense plans in order to reliably ensure both our security and our defense capability," Grushko stressed.

The Deputy Foreign Minister also noted that the Russian Federation notes how "man-made", due to the aggressive aspirations of NATO, the region of Northern Europe is turning into an arena of confrontation.