MOSCOW, Jan 22, 2024 (BSS/XINHUA) - Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Sunday that NATO's Steadfast Defender 2024 exercises signify a final and irrevocable return to the Cold War schemes.
 
   NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Christopher Cavoli, announced earlier that the exercises, scheduled for next week, will be the largest in decades and will last for several months.
 
   "These exercises are another component of the hybrid war that the West has waged against Russia," Grushko said.
 
   "By conducting exercises of such magnitude -- 90,000 personnel and 31 countries -- NATO has definitively and irreversibly reverted to the Cold War schemes, where the military planning, resources and infrastructure are tailored for confrontation with Russia," he noted.
 
   "This is precisely the idea behind the exercises," Grushko said. "They will encompass a series of maneuvers and drills to practice possible scenarios of conflict with a comparable adversary in all operational domains and on all fronts in the contact zone."