NATO plans to dispatch an initial contingent of around 4,000 troops to Baltic states and eastern Poland. Russia considers the move as the biggest military build-up on its borders since the end of the Cold War.
Michel Chossudovsky with the Center for Research on Globalization told Press TV that the advancement of the US and its NATO allies into eastern Europe is a saber-rattling gesture to Russia which is helping Syria fight terrorists.
"It is the United States and its allies which are beating the drums of war and the reason is largely Syria, where since 2011 they have been waging a war through their foot soldiers,” he said.
Russia's engagement in the war against foreign-backed militants in Syria has nullified plots hatched by the United States and its allies, he said.
Chossudovsky said the Western military alliance has recruited terrorists with the support of Saudi Arabia and Turkey and sent them into Syria to topple the Syrian government.
He said while Russia was trying to use the path of diplomacy to ease tensions, "there is a lot of idiotic and dangerous discourse on the US side.”
“The United States has a first-strike nuclear weapons option,” he said, adding the Americans "even claim that tactical nuclear weapons are harmless to the surrounding civilian population and can be used on a first strike basis as peace-making bombs.”
US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton “has consistently said that she will use nuclear weapons against Russia,” Chossudovsky said.
Ian Williams with the Foreign Policy in Focus called on the US and Russia to take step back and try to avoid more provocations, which may lead to the World War III.
"It is an extremely dangerous situation and it is not too far to say it is almost the 1914 situation,” he said.