Putin says Russia planning ‘countermeasures’ to Nato expansion, as Moscow deploys missiles in far west

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is warning his forces could target Nato sites if the country feels threatened, sharply raising the stakes against the Western alliance even as US president-elect Donald Trump calls for greater outreach with the Kremlin.

“We must take countermeasures, that is strike with our missile systems the targets that, in our opinion, begin to threaten us,” Putin said in an interview with American filmmaker Oliver Stone for a documentary broadcast Monday.

His comments were reported as the US State Department warned that Russia’s deployment of its S-400 air missile defence system and ballistic Iskander missile in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad “is destabilising to European security”.

The Stone-produced documentary - about the conflict in Ukraine between pro-Moscow separatists and the Western-allied government - premiered on Russian television after advance transcripts of Putin’s remarks were circulated by Russian state-run media.

Putin’s comments were among his sharpest rebukes to Nato as the alliance increasingly focuses on perceived threats from Russia. Earlier Monday, Russia announced the Kaliningrad missile deployment.