President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia will quickly respond should Europe provoke Moscow, amid what he called a militarisation of the continent driven by hysteria.
Addressing the Valdai Discussion Club, a forum of Russia experts, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin said Russia had shown through centuries that it would retaliate if provoked.
'If anyone still has a desire to compete with us in the military sphere, as we say, feel free, let them try,' he warned.
'Russia's countermeasures will not be long in coming.'
The war in Ukraine, Europe's deadliest since World War II, has sparked the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and Kremlin officials say they are now in a 'hot' conflict with the West.
