Russia to add three new military divisions to counter NATO - agencies

U.S. Army soldiers guard as U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor fighters are parked in the military air base in Siauliai, Lithuania, April 27, 2016. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will take retaliatory measures if NATO deploys four extra battalions in Poland and the Baltic states and it will reinforce its western and southern flanks with three new divisions by the year-end anyway, officials said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Monday that NATO was weighing up rotating four battalions of troops through eastern member states amid rising tension in the Baltic.