As the NATO-Russia Council meets today for the fourth time since the Crimea hiatus, Russia's defense ministry said it regarded U.S. naval patrols in the Black Sea as a potential threat to its safety because it was unclear what kind of missiles the ships were carrying, the RIA news agency reported."Missile defense ships in the Black and Baltic seas pose a threat to facilities in the European part of Russia, because it is unclear what missiles the Mk-41 launchers carry at a given moment," Lieutenant-General Viktor Poznikhir, told a joint Russian-Chinese news briefing on missile defense issues at the disarmament conference in Geneva, as reported by Russian news agency TASS."It should be remembered that the possibility of using the naval missile launchers on the ground for accommodating the Tomahawk cruise missiles is a crude violation of the 1987 INF treaty. Russia has more than once notified its U.S. partners of its concerns about such violations of international commitments. There has been no response to this day, though," he also stated.Russia, which annexed Ukraine's Crimea in 2014, has its own Black Sea Fleet based at Sevastopol. On March 20, Russia launched the command-staff exercises of airborne troops at the Opuk training ground in Crimea.Meanwhile, the U.S. and Romania practiced storming Black Sea shores. An American landing ship, the USS Carter Hall, exited the Black Sea on March 22 after taking part in the exercises, Spring Storm 2017. U.S. Marines and Romanian troops took part in joint exercises on the Black Sea coast. In one maneuver on March 20, they launched a Stinger missile at a surface-to-air firing range. The Spring Storm 17 exercises aimed to increase interoperability of Romanian and U.S. troops in a region where NATO members are uneasy after Russia's interventions in Ukraine.The NATO-Russia Council, the forum bringing together NATO ambassadors and Russia's top diplomat to the U.S.-led alliance, is seen as a way to prevent tensions escalating by explaining each other's positions, even when joint exercises and peacekeeping have been suspended. "The NATO-Russia Council is an important platform for dialogue to reduce tensions and increase transparency and predictability," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said.On today's agenda is the separatist conflict in Ukraine that the West accuses Russia of orchestrating. Moscow denies that, but Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea remains divisive. Troop movements by both NATO and Russia will be discussed, as well as Moscow's deployment of missiles to its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, diplomats said. Afghanistan is also on the agenda, but it is not clear if NATO's top commander will address his suspicions that Russia may be supplying Taliban insurgents. Moscow has rejected that as a lie.The Council comes just weeks after the first telephone call in two years between the head of NATO's military committee, General Petr Pavel, and the chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov. Pavel is seeking a face-to-face meeting. "The rhythm of the Council's work is gradually recovering," Russia's Ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko said, referring to the meetings that restarted after a near two-year hiatus last April.