Russia said on Thursday that NATO's talk of Russia and China being a threat to Greenland was a myth designed to artificially whip up hysteria and that what it called the Western alliance's policy of escalating confrontation in the Arctic was extremely dangerous.

Russia also called NATO's military exercises in Greenland "yet another provocation" in the Arctic, as the U.S. moves to take control.

Trump's interest in Greenland isn't random – the Arctic island holds military bases and rare earth minerals as ice melts open strategic opportunities.

Here we go again with Greenland. Normal daily business has once again been interrupted by a mid-afternoon Truth Social bomb, this time the president of the United States announcing tariffs on eight European nations opposing US control of the Arctic territory.

Russia said on Thursday that its was unacceptable for the West to keep claiming that Russia and China threatened Greenland, and said the crisis over the territory showed the double-standards of Western powers which claimed moral superiority.

U.S. President Donald Trump has made an American takeover of Greenland a focus of his second term in the White House.

The island is home to a massive deposit of rare earths, which are crucial to U.S. efforts to maintain its technological lead over China. But tapping them isn't so easy.

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said Greenlanders could vote to join Russia if U.S. President Donald Trump did not move quickly to secure the Arctic island, Interfax reported on Monday.

Russia says Greenland belongs to Denmark - after four years of trying to take Ukrainian territory - Donald Trump threatened allies with more tariffs if they did not go along with his plan for the Dani