Russia will strengthen its forces in the Crimea, as far as NATO intensifies its activities in the Eastern Europe. According to the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Aleksandr Grushko, the alliance places its military potential near the Russian borders, as RIA Novosti reported.

      “Nothing has changed in terms of quality, but we will, of course, partially strengthen our forces in the Crimea, based on the assumption that NATO countries increase their activity, placing its potential in close vicinity of our borders” - Grushko told during the video conference Moscow-Brussels. According to his words, Russia could not upgrade the fleet in the Crimea, for Ukraine prevented it in every possible way. The fact that NATO will strengthen its forces in the east of the alliance was told by the Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a meeting in Brussels on February 5.

      “This is a reaction to the aggressive actions of Russia that violates international law, I mean the annexation of the Crimea, and I want to emphasize that we do it because we need to adapt our forces, taking the changing world into account” - he said. Stoltenberg then noted that the North-Atlantic alliance terminated the most part of the contacts with Russia after the Crimean crisis, but “a channel for political cooperation was left”.