Nato accused Russia on Tuesday of stoking tensions in Europe with the deployment of anti-ship missiles to its westernmost Baltic region.

The alliance described Moscow’s decision to send state-of-the-art Bastion missile-launchers to Kaliningrad, which borders Nato members Poland and Lithuania, as “aggressive military posturing".

It said the Kremlin’s move would do nothing to “lower tensions or restore predictability to our relations", in a statement to AP news agency.

It came shortly after John Kirby, US State Department spokesman, called Russia’s plans to permanently deploy its S-400 air missile defense system and ballistic Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad “destabilising to European security.”