President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia regularly carries out nuclear exercises and its latest drills this week are not an escalation.
Putin said the only difference this time is that the exercises also involve Belarus, where Russia announced last year that it was deploying tactical nuclear missiles.
He was speaking at a press conference in Minsk following two days of talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.
Last week, tensions between Russia and the West appeared to escalate to a dangerous new level when President Vladimir Putin ordered military drills involving tactical nuclear weapons near the Ukrainian border.
The Kremlin made clear that the drills were in response to statements by Western leaders about the deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine and the use of Western weapons to strike targets inside Russia.
