MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/. The United States is seeking to hamper Russia’s activity in the Arctic while building up its own military infrastructure in northern territories and near the Russian borders in general, Russian Presidential Aide Nikolay Patrushev said.

"The United States and its allies are fanning tension along our borders, keep on checking Russia’s defense potential. Washington has embarked on the course toward militarizing the Arctic and hampering our economic activity in the North. Calls are heard in the West to close the Baltic Sea for our country and bar the entry to the Atlantic via it. The Black Sea has been declared by NATO a zone of only its interests," he said in an interview with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

The recent largest US-Japanese naval drills "once again confirmed Tokyo’s refusal for the pacifistic ideology and adherence to the American strategy of whipping up tension in the Pacific," he added.