NATO says Russia misled West over scale of Zapad war games

Servicemen get off a Mi-8 helicopter during the Zapad 2017 war games at a range near the town of Borisov, Belarus September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO accused Russia on Thursday of misleading the alliance over the scope of its war games last month in violation of rules meant to reduce East-West tensions, but Moscow said NATO was stirring up anti-Russian propaganda.

At a meeting with Russia's ambassador to the U.S.-led alliance, Alexander Grushko, NATO envoys said that Moscow had given conflicting accounts of the exercises known as Zapad, or "West", in Belarus, the Baltic Sea, western Russia and its Kaliningrad outpost, diplomats said.