Russia says Merz's 'militarisation' of Germany is a cause for concern

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia accused German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday of pursuing a path of "militarisation" and said this was a cause for concern.

Merz, a conservative who took office in May, has taken a more robust stance in support of Ukraine than his Social Democrat predecessor Olaf Scholz, while promising to increase pressure on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.

He visited Kyiv within days of becoming chancellor, and endorsed Ukraine's right to launch long-range missile strikes into Russian territory.

Under Merz, Germany plans to boost defence spending rapidly to 3.5% of gross domestic product by 2029, having hit the previous NATO target of 2% only in 2024.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told her weekly news briefing that Germany had pursued an openly hostile policy towards Russia in recent years, and that Merz was stepping up anti-Russian rhetoric "literally every day".

"This rhetoric is becoming more and more aggressively militant. And we believe that the course he has chosen to escalate relations with Russia in parallel with the forced militarisation of Germany is a cause for great concern, first of all for the citizens of (Germany) themselves," Zakharova said.

Berlin did not immediately comment on Zakharova's remarks.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Writing by Mark Trevelyan and Felix Light, Editing by Timothy Heritage)