Britain, EU powers join US
Britain said on Wednesday it will send fighter jets to Romania next year and the United States promised troops, tanks and artillery to Poland in Nato's biggest military build-up on Russia's borders since the Cold War.
Germany, Canada and other Nato allies also pledged forces at a defence ministers meeting in Brussels on the same day two Russian warships armed with cruise missiles entered the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Denmark, underscoring East-West tensions.
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the troop contributions to a new 4,000-strong force in the Baltics and eastern Europe were a measured response to what the alliance believes are some 330,000 Russian troops stationed on Russia's western flank near Moscow.
Nato says Russia has deployed this month nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad, Moscow's European enclave, and suspended a weapons-grade plutonium agreement with the United States.
Those ballistic missiles can hit targets across Poland and the Baltics, although Nato officials declined to say if Russia had moved nuclear warheads to Kaliningrad.
US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced a "battle-ready battalion task force" of about 900 soldiers would be sent to eastern Poland, as well as another, separate force equipped with tanks and other heavy equipment to move across eastern Europe.
Britain's Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said Britain would send an 800-strong battalion to Estonia, supported by French and Danish troops, starting from May. The United States wants its troops in position by June.
London is also sending Typhoon fighter aircraft to Romania to patrol around the Black Sea, partly in support of Turkey.
Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin yesterday accused American politicians of whipping up hysteria about a mythical Russian threat as a ploy to distract voters from their own failings in the run-up to the US presidential election.
Putin, addressing an audience of foreign policy experts gathered in southern Russia, repeatedly lashed out at the Obama administration, saying it did not keep its word on Syria, did not honour deals, and had falsely accused Moscow of all manner of sins.
The US government has formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organisations.
Putin said he found it hard to believe that anyone seriously thought Moscow was capable of influencing the Nov 8 election.
"It's much simpler to distract people with so-called Russian hackers, spies, and agents of influence. Does anyone really think that Russia could influence the American people's choice in any way? Is America a banana republic or what? America is a great power."
Asked about Trump, Putin said the Republican candidate was deliberately adopting a showy style because he wanted to get his message across and that he represented ordinary voters fed up with the US political elite.
Putin dismissed suggestions by some politicians in the West that Russia is poised to attack another country or intervene elsewhere in the Middle East apart from Syria.
But he made clear Russia was in Syria for the long haul and intended to clear the city of Aleppo of what he called "a nest of terrorists", while trying to minimise civilian casualties.
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