Radio Free Europe:
The Russian Navy plans to test missiles in international waters off Norway’s coast this week, Norwegian and NATO officials say, as the Western military alliance conducts its largest military exercise since the end of the Cold War.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on October 29 the alliance was informed last week about the planned tests. “Russia has a sizable presence in the north, also off Norway,” Stoltenberg told the Norwegian news agency NTB. “Large [Russian] forces take part in maneuvers and they practice regularly,” he added.
Russian officials did not immediately comment on the planned missile tests, which come amid persistent tension between NATO and Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and backs separatists in an ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine but accuses the alliance of provocative behavior near its borders.
