MOSCOW, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- The West is pushing Russia towards its red line, leaving Moscow no choice but to respond, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday at an expanded meeting of the collegium of the Russian Defense Ministry.

Western countries are using a false Russian threat to scare their populations, while pushing Moscow to its red line and forcing a response, said Putin, adding that the West wages hybrid wars and pursues a policy of containment in relation to states they oppose, including Russia.

He pointed out that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is ramping up military spending, deploying strike groups near Russia's borders, and increasing the number of U.S. troops in Europe, with the total now exceeding 100,000.

The bloc is also strengthening its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, while forming U.S.-led military alliances that weaken the long-standing security architecture there, he said.

"U.S. efforts aimed at creating and preparing high-precision ground-based weapons with a range of up to 5,500 km for deployment in forward zones are concerning," Putin said, warning that if the United States moves forward with the deployment of such missiles, Russia will lift its own unilateral restrictions previously imposed within the framework of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

At the same time, he noted that the Russian army and navy are being modernized, and 95 percent of the country's strategic nuclear forces are now equipped with modern weapons.

Putin said the mass production of the country's new Oreshnik intermediate-range missile systems will begin in the near future.

He said that Russia's strategic nuclear forces are crucial in maintaining sovereignty and territorial integrity, adding that it is also "important to keep non-strategic nuclear forces in constant combat readiness and continue ... conducting exercises to practice their use." Enditem

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