"NATO Puts 300,000 Troops On High Alert"

NATO puts 300.000 troops on 'high alert' in readiness for a confrontation with Russia as fears grow Putin is preparing to attack the West.

Nato chiefs, thrown into a panic by fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin might attack the West, are scrambling to put together a force of 300,000 troops which they can put on 'high alert'.

Relations between Russia and the West have plunged in the last year, with Moscow's insistence on backing its Syrian ally, President Bashar al-Assad, at all costs leading to serious tension with the US, Britain and France. 

Most Nato members cut their defence spending dramatically since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 but Russia has been bolstering its military capabilities, holding parades involving more than 100,000 troops each year.

Moscow has been throwing its weight around in recent years - in 2008 Russian troops humiliated the Georgians and in turn the White House by invading South Ossetia and Abkhazia in support of pro-Moscow rebels. 

Then in 2014 Russia annexed Crimea and supported ethnic Russian rebels in the eastern Ukraine.

President Obama's 'Russian reset' policy, which was designed to improve relations with Moscow, has looked increasingly like a policy of appeasement.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has been accused of attempting to interfere with the US election process by hacking into the emails of senior members of the Democratic party and recently moved the Iskander nuclear-capable missiles into the Kaliningrad enclave, on the borders with Poland. 

But Nato members like Estonia, Poland and Romania, who are feeling increasingly threatened by Moscow, are now being promised a rapid deployment force.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told The Times this week: 'We have also seen Russia using propaganda in Europe among Nato allies and that is exactly the reason why Nato is responding. We are responding with the biggest reinforcement of our collective defence since the end of the Cold War.

'We have seen Russia being much more active in many different ways.

'We have seen a more assertive Russia implementing a substantial military build-up over many years; tripling defence spending since 2000 in real terms; developing new military capabilities; exercising their forces and using military force against neighbours,' added Mr Stoltenberg.