sergei Shoigu said British troops on a Salisbury Plain training facility "have started to use Russian-made tanks and uniforms of the Russian military to designate the enemy".
The man who heads the former Red Army said: "The last time this training method was used was by Nazi Germany during the Second World War."
The 61 year general, one of Putin's closest allies and a personal friend, alleged NATO "has doubled the intensity of military exercises, most of which are anti-Russian".He told a meeting of top brass in his ministry: "None of the exercises held by foreign states has passed unnoticed."
He warned that "the outcome of every drill has been analysed and taken into consideration in combat training of forces."
Relations between Russia and the West are at their lowest ebb since the end of the USSR a generation ago. But president-elect Donald Trump has held out a hand to Moscow, and Russia hopes for an improved relationship with the US after he assumes the White House next month.
During the Second World War, Britain - like the US - allied with the USSR to defeat Hitler.
This followed the collapse of a secret pact between Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and the Nazi leader, which carved up eastern Europe. NATO vowed at a summit in Warsaw in July to bolster its eastern flank.
The aim was to counter a resurgent Russia, with four battalions deployed in Poland and the Baltic states.
Moscow slammed the decision, accusing NATO of working to counter a "non-existent threat"European countries fear Moscow's deployment of nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in October into its Kaliningrad outpost that borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania.
The missiles have Berlin in their range.
NATO has suspended all practical cooperation with Russia over its role in Ukraine but certain political channels of communication have remained open..
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