article_snippet.sent: Vladimir Putin is planning to exploit the threat of nuclear war to force Nato out of countries bordering Russia, Nato has been claimed.
article_snippet.sent: A secret meeting between intelligence figures in Moscow and Washington reportedly revealed Vladimir Putin will consider any attempt to return the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine as declaration of war and will take any necessary step - including using nuclear weapons - to retain control of the region.
article_snippet.sent: Notes from the meeting are also said to have revealed that Vladimir Putinis planning imminent 'destabilising actions' in pro-Western Baltic states in a direct challenge to Nato's promise to defend the countries from Soviet-style Russian expansionism.
article_snippet.sent: Vladimir Putin will consider any attempt to return the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine as declaration of war and will take any necessary step - including using nuclear weapons - to retain control of the region .
article_snippet.sent: American and Russian officials in Germany suggest Russia is prepared to respond with force to the build up of Nato defence forces in the Baltic and by carrying out a wave of cyber attacks that can not be traced back to Moscow.
article_snippet.sent: The Kremlin officials - who were briefed by Russian Foreign Minister Segei Lavrov before the meeting and spoke of behalf of Vladimir Putin - are said to have issued 'a spectrum of responses from nuclear to non-military' in response to the growing Nato army in the region.
article_snippet.sent: In Crimea, Russia is understood to have said that any attempt remove the region from Russian control would be met 'forcefully including through the use of nuclear force'.
article_snippet.sent: The Russian people would demand a forceful response [to such advances]', the Kremlin intelligence chiefs reportedly added.
article_snippet.sent: It is the threat posed by Russia to the Baltic states that is thought to be imminent, however, after Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all raised concerns that Moscow has ambitions in the former Soviet territories, prompting Nato to establish a 'rapid reaction force' in the region.
article_snippet.sent: The threat of a Russian invasion of the countries is currently considered so great that Lithuania has gone as far as to reintroduce conscription in order to ensure Lithuania is prepared for all out conflict.
highlights_snippet.sent: Said attempts to return Crimea to Ukraine will be dealt with as an invasion .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Also demanded Nato breaks up so called 'rapid response force' in the Baltic and 