President Vladimir Putin is attending week-long war games with Belarus which demonstrate his mighty military's resurgence
RUSSIA showed its rivals it's ready for war as it paraded its military might during high-profile war games.
NATO fears the massive military drills could be seen as “serious preparation for a big war” but the Kremlin was quick to deny they are anything “out of the ordinary”.
President Vladimir Putin attended the week-long combat show with Belarus which demonstrated the Russian military's resurgence and made neighbouring countries nervous.
Putin observed tank attacks, airborne assaults and air raids at the Luzhsky range in western Russia, just 60 miles east of Estonia's border.
As part of the manoeuvres, the Russians also test-fired their state-of-the-art cruise missile - showcasing the weapon's extended range and precision strike capability.
Some nervous NATO members, including the Baltic states and Poland, have criticised an alleged lack of transparency about the war games and questioned Moscow's intentions.
The exercises, held in several firing ranges in Belarus and western Russia, run through Wednesday.
Russia and Belarus say 5,500 Russian and 7,200 Belarusian troops are participating, but some NATO countries have estimated that up to 100,000 troops could really be involved.
With Russia's relations with the West at a post-Cold War low point over the fighting in Ukraine, worries about the war games ranged from allegations that Russia could permanently deploy its forces to Belarus to fears of a surprise onslaught on the Baltics.
Russia and Belarus have said the exercises simulate a response to foreign-backed "extremists" and insisted they don't threaten anyone.
Their troops are fighting three invented "aggressor countries" Veishnoriya, Lubeniya and Vesbariya. However, the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and Poland see the monikers for the made up enemies as thinly disguised references to their nations.
General Petr Pavel, head of NATO’s military committee, said: "All together, what we see is a serious preparation for big war.
"When we only look at the exercise that is presented by Russia there should be no worry.
"But when we look it in the big picture, we have to be worried, because Russia was not transparent."
NATO has rotated military units in the Baltics and Poland and staged regular drills in the region, activities Moscow has criticized as a reflection of the alliance's hostile intentions.
The drills involved various branches of the Russian military, including the air force's long-range bombers and missile forces.
The missile, launched from the Kapustin Yar firing range in southwestern Russia, hit a mock target at a range in Kazakhstan, some 300 miles away, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
The US has accused Russia of developing cruise missiles banned by the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with a goal to threaten US facilities in Europe and the NATO alliance.
Moscow has rejected the accusations and insisted it has adhered to the pact.
The INF Treaty bans an entire class of weapons all land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range between 310 and 3,410 miles.
The Iskander-M's stated range puts it just below the pact's threshold.
