BISHKEK, September 7. /TASS/. The pressure being put on Russia by Western countries is dangerously balancing on the edge of a direct military conflict between nuclear powers, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told a regional seminar in Bishkek.

"The response measures that we had to take, which included the important aspect of protecting the external security contour on the western axis, have been used by our adversaries as a pretext to start putting military pressure on Russia," he continued as he warned that "this pressure has been dangerously balancing on the edge of a direct military conflict between nuclear powers."

The senior Russian diplomat also lamented that the NATO allies "chose to pursue a non-stop malicious expansion and efforts toward military and geopolitical absorption of territories in the zone of Russia’s essential interests in an assertive way." "Meanwhile, today’s crisis is far from being resolved and is posing a major risk of further escalation," Ryabkov concluded.