RUSSIA is risking all out war as Putin plans to plough on ahead with missile testing in the same area Nato is conducting it's biggest exercises since the end of the Cold War.

More than 50,000 Nato troops, 250 aircraft, 65 ships and 10,000 vehicles are currently exercising in Norway, Iceland and Finland as part of Trident Juncture.


But the Russian Navy also plans to conduct missile tests of the western coast of Norway from today through to Saturday.

Moscow has branded the Nato exercises “anti-Russian” and poured scorn on the organisations claims that they are "defensive".

Speaking with reporters in Trondheim, secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said Moscow had informed Nato last week of its plans to conduct missile tests near the More og Romsdal region.

That is the area troops from the USS Iwo Jima practiced landing via hovercraft on Monday.

Fighter jets will also reportedly be taking off from the nearby coastal airbase of Orland.

The news comes a day after high tech Russian fighters carried out a planned flight over the Arctic circle, drawing a reaction from the Royal Norwegian Air Force.

The Russian Defence Ministry issued a statement ahead of the flight, saying: “Two strategic Tu-160 Russian missile launchers are carrying out a scheduled flight over the neutral waters of the Barents and Norwegian Seas.

“The total duration of the flight will be around ten hours, after which the Russian Air Force teams will carry out a landing at their base.

“Pilots regularly fly over neutral waters of the Arctic, North Atlantic, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Pacific."

Mr Stoltenberg admitted that Moscow had significant naval forces off the Norwegian coast but denied that the Nato war games would be disrupted.

“We will conduct our exercise as planned, and I don't expect that that will cause any serious problems, but as I said we will follow the movement of the Russian maritime capabilities closely, and they are informed about our exercise, so we do whatever we can to avoid any dangerous situation,” he said.
He added that Nato had invited Russian observers to its manoeuvres.

Yesterday the two sides discussed their respective exercises as well as a Cold War-era missile treaty that Washington has vowed to quit over accusations of Moscow failing to comply.

The talks, the first between the old foes since May, came against a backdrop of heightened tensions between the West and Russia, most notably over Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

A NATO statement said the sides had an "open exchange" of views on Ukraine, Russia's Vostok military exercises and NATO's ongoing Trident Juncture drills, as well as on Afghanistan and hybrid security threats.