Putin’s right-hand man says Nato’s wartime drills are threat to Russia

German soldiers take part in the Nordic Response military exercise, in Alta, Norway (Picture: EPA)

Vladimir Putin’s right-hand man – who has know him for more than 50 years – has said that Nato’s biggest exercise since the end of the Cold War is a threat to Russia.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council, argued that alliance members are working out a scenario of armed confrontation against his country.

As a former KGB officer, he has known the Russian president since the 1970s when the two worked together in the Soviet security service.

His remarks offer an insight into the thinking at the very top of the Kremlin’s elite.

Troops have come from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, UK, Sweden, Germany and the US (Picture: EPA)

Patrushev said the ongoing drills called ‘Resilient Defender 2024,’ will increase any geopolitical tensions.

‘There are plans to further expand Nato’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region and the Arctic,’ he said at a meeting on national security issues in the regions of the North Caucasus Federal District .

‘In 2024, expenditures for military purposes envisaged by Nato countries continue to grow, which once again emphasizes the growing aggressive nature of this alliance.’

Patrushev added: ‘The destructive role of the US in recent history is obvious. ‘No other country has unleashed so many wars and military conflicts, or provoked so many destructive economic crises.’

UK soldiers stand inside armoured vehicles as they cross the Vistula River (Picture: Getty)

The drill is part of large scale Steadfast Defender-24 exercise (Picture: SOPA)

The exercises – involving more than 20,000 soldiers from 13 countries – are being transformed by the accession of Sweden and Finland.

Both nations turned their backs on long histories of non-alignment after Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago.

Nato members will drill on land, at sea, and in the air. As many as 50 submarines, frigates, corvettes, aircraft carriers, and amphibious vessels will be involved.

More than 100 fighter jets, transport aircraft, maritime surveillance aircraft, and helicopters will also be deployed throughout the course of the exercise.

German defence minister Boris Pistorius, left, and Norwegian defence minister Bjorn Arild Gram, second from right, visit soldiers (Picture: AP)

UK troops in Foxhound vehicles cross the Vistula River on M3 amphibious rigs (Pictue: Getty)

In Bodoe, in northern Norway, US and Norwegian F-35s joined Finnish F-18s and Swedish Gripen fighter jets flying low across the sky above the military base, part of a first test of a joint Nordic air operations centre, a key part of the drills.

‘The new concept now is that we try to integrate even further and that is possible because of the new Nato membership of Finland and the Swedish membership shortly to come,’ said Major General Rolf Folland, Norwegian Air Force Chief and head of the new centre.

‘Then the last hindrance for total integration is taken away and that makes it possible for us to be able to work as one air power in peacetime, crisis and war.’

More than 300 officers and specialists are working to coordinate and control the aircraft taking part in the exercises, about half of them temporarily operating from Camp Bodin.

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