India, Jan. 21 -- Russia has reacted strongly to US President Donald Trump's controversial bid to take control of Greenland, not by threatening war, but by welcoming the political discord it has stirred within NATO and Europe.

Russia says the crisis exposes deep fractures in the transatlantic alliance and sees strategic value in the heightened tensions. At the same time, Russian officials publicly deny any plan to seize the Arctic territory themselves, even as they applaud the weakening unity among Western powers.

Russian officials have already weighed in on the debate over Greenland's future. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that if Trump were to succeed in acquiring the island, he would "go down in history," suggesting that the mo...