NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has argued that the alliance is powerful enough to deter Russia from attacking it, according to Reuters. He stated that, in his view, if there were a direct military confrontation between Russia and NATO today, it would be the alliance that would emerge the winner.

Rutte said NATO would, as he put it, win any battle with Russia if Moscow attacked now, and stressed that member states should ensure the situation remains the same two, four or six years from now.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, for his part, has repeatedly stated that Moscow has no intention of attacking other countries. He once again made this point during a meeting last year with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, saying that Western politicians who promote the idea of a possible Russian strike on one of the Western states behave like horror-movie specialists.

Putin also drew attention to what he described as whipped-up hysteria around claims that Russia is supposedly preparing to attack Europe. He said that, for reasonable people, it is obvious such statements are either a deliberate provocation or a sign of complete incompetence.