NATO Chairman: Russia preparing for big war

Chairman of NATO's Military Committee Petr Pavel says there are reasons for concern over Russia-Belarus military maneuvers Zapad (West) 2017.

According to him, the exercise "could be seen" a "serious preparations for big war".

In addition, Pavel also said that NATO was "not competing with Russia for the Western Balkans".

He told AP on Saturday that NATO was "increasing efforts to reestablish the military-to-military communications with Russia to avoid any unintended consequences of potential incidents during the exercise."

"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," he said.

Pavel was participating in the annual conference of the NATO Military...