Russia, NATO spar over maritime incidents in the Baltic

One week after Russian attack planes buzzed a U.S. destroyer in the Baltic, Russian officials met with NATO envoys in Brussels on Wednesday and accused the U.S. of intimidation by sailing close to its borders and said Moscow would respond with "all necessary measures" to any future incidents.

At issue were incidents last week in which Russian SU-24 jets swooped down on the guided missile destroyer USS Donald Cook during U.S. joint exercises in the Baltic Sea  in what defense officials on Wednesday described as "aggressive" and "unsafe flight maneuvers."

Two Russian jets made "numerous, close-range and low-altitude passes" on the U.S. ship as a helicopter refueled on the deck, according to a statement from U.S. European Command.

Alexander Grushko, Moscow's ambassador, however, saw the issue differently. Speaking after a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, the first such gathering in almost two years, Grushko said the incidents underscored that ties between both sides could not improve until NATO withdraws from Russia's borders.

"This is about attempts to exercise military pressure on Russia," Grushko told reporters. "We will take all necessary measures, precautions, to compensate for these attempts to use military force."

NATO, in response, said the alliance will "keep channels of communication open" and said it is necessary to discuss differences and reduce risks of military incidents.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters that all sides were operating under agreed upon rules regarding the observation and notification of exercise, and "those rules must be respected."

He also called for modernizing military transparency, such as updating hotlines between both sides. “It is important that everyone participates constructively in that work," Stoltenberg said. “More military transparency can contribute to more security in Europe. This is in both NATO’s and Russia’s interest.”

Since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow has chafed under the expansion of NATO, including adding as members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which were former Soviet republics. Other countries in the 28-member alliance include former Warsaw Pact allies Poland, Romania and the Czech republic, as well as formerly communist Albania.

In the formal talks, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute pressed Russia about the buzzing incident, warning it had been dangerous, Reuters reported. The United States says the USS Cook was on routine business off the Polish coast when  it was harassed by Russian jets.

"We were in international waters," a NATO diplomat reported Lute as telling Grushko, according to Reuters.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, speaking Wednesday on Russia's government-funded RT television news, criticized NATO's "military-buildup" on Russia's western borders.

"Such dangerous plans are implemented in the missile defense sphere," he said, warning that Moscow would respond with "appropriate military-technical measures," the official TASS news agency reports.