MOSCOW. March 30 (Interfax) - Russia is preparing an asymmetric response to the increase in NATO's, and in particular the United States' military presence near Russian borders, Russia's ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko has said.
"Of course, our response will be completely asymmetrical, it will be calibrated to match our ideas about the degree of military threat, to be most efficient and not overly expensive," he said on the Rossiya-24 (VGTRK) television channel.
"We can see that the U.S. continues to increase its military presence in Europe with an emphasis on the Eastern front (. . .). We are not passive observers, and consistently implement all those military measures that are necessary in order to offset this totally unjustified increased military presence," Grushko said.
On Wednesday, the BNS news agency said that the U.S. is planning to increase its military presence in Eastern Europe and start rotating armored brigades in 2017. Thus, the U.S. will increase its military presence in Europe to three, fully equipped combat brigades, according to the U.S. Forces command in Europe.