MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin on Friday dismissed a media report which suggested the U.S. was worried that Moscow would launch an attack on Ukraine, saying Russia did not pose a threat to anyone.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to a U.S. media report which said that Washington had raised concerns about the potential attack with its European Union allies.
The report by Bloomberg cited potentially suspicious troop movements inside Russia as being one of the reasons for U.S. concern.
“We have repeatedly said that the movement of our armed forces on our territory should not be a cause for concern,” Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
He said the media report pointlessly fuelled East-West tensions. “Russia is not a threat to anyone,” he said.
Moscow was the one who had observed an increase in what he called provocative behaviour from its opponents, he said, including a spike in NATO activity in the Black Sea and flights by Western spy planes, that could not leave it indifferent.
“If necessary, we take measures to ensure our security if our opponents take action along our borders,” said Peskov.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
