MOSCOW, March 17 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian defense minister said Friday that there were no plans to increase Russia's military strength on its Scandinavian borders, in contrast to the situation on its western borders.

"Russia has no intentions to increase its military presence in the northwest," Sergei Ivanov told his Finnish counterpart Seppo Kaariainen at a Moscow meeting.

Ivanov, who is also a deputy prime minister, said: "Russia is not the Soviet Union. Actually, I am not discounting the existence of a certain military threat for Russia, but this threat is not in the northwest."

"In relation to our western borders, we have a different situation, since the NATO military alliance has advanced significantly over the last 15 years to reach the border of the Russian Federation," the minister said.

Ivanov said that Russia had reduced its army by one-third since the collapse of the Soviet Union and that the northwest Leningrad Military District headquartered in St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, had undergone major cuts.