Lavrov: Russian military will not conduct exercises near NATO borders
The Russian army has no plans to conduct exercises near the borders of NATO countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and has generally scaled them down, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a video conference press briefing.
"For the period that we are now going through, during the period of coronavirus infection, our military has reported that they are reducing the scale of the exercises and do not plan any exercises near the line of contact with the North Atlantic Alliance," said Lavrov, as quoted by RIA Novosti.
In March 2020, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel-General Alexander Fomin told Izvestia that the Russian military is trying to find "points of contact" with NATO.
"The military stopped conducting military exercises in close proximity near Russia's borders with Western states. Our combat aircraft flies over the Baltic with transponders turned on. We are open to openness in military activities," Fomin said.