“It is necessary to intimidate the citizens of the European Union and the citizens of the United States with an imaginary threat from Russia.
They say that the exercises are aimed at defense, but the European Union, frankly speaking, has never defended itself, "Tsekov said.
In his opinion, the launch of such large-scale exercises also has a financial factor.
"All these actions are aggressive and offensive ... The exercises are being conducted to" pump up "NATO's military budget, to buy new weapons," the senator added.
Earlier it was reported that NATO exercises Defender Europe 2021 started in the Albanian port of Durres in the presence of the top leadership of Albania and several American generals.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia is closely monitoring the transfer and deployment of NATO forces in Europe during the Defender Europe exercise.
According to him, these NATO exercises are the largest in the past 30 years.