Putin says NATO drills in Black Sea are serious challenge for Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government via a video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia November 10, 2021. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that unscheduled NATO drills in the Black Sea posed a serious challenge for Moscow and that Russia had nothing to do with the crisis on close ally Belarus's border with the European Union.

In comments published on the Kremlin's website, Putin said he hoped that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would speak directly about the crisis and that the migrants primarily wanted to go to Germany.