The idea that Moscow has some kind of plan to attack NATO is a stupid attempt to maintain the West’s global hegemony by fear, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
Putin was asked about NATO’s preparations to defend from a Russian “invasion” at a meeting with the heads of major international news agencies on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
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“Look, someone has imagined that Russia wants to attack NATO. Have you gone completely insane? Are you as thick as this table? Who came up with this nonsense, this bulls**t?” Putin said.
The Russian president suggested that the “bulls**t” was in the service of deceiving the Western public, urging them to arm themselves and send more weapons to Ukraine.
“Why is this being done, really? To maintain their own position of greatness, that’s why. There’s nothing to these scary stories, intended for the townsfolk in Germany and France and elsewhere in Europe,” Putin explained. “In Ukraine, we’re just protecting ourselves.”
“Don’t make up things and then form opinions about Russia on the basis of them,” he added. “You only hurt yourselves this way.”
During the session, which lasted more than three hours, Putin repeatedly addressed the root causes of Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, from the 2014 US-backed coup to the atrocities of the Kiev government in the Donbass and the failed Minsk peace process that Western leaders have admitted to being a sham.
The Russian president argued that the US hasn’t poured billions of dollars in cash, weapons, ammunition and equipment into Ukraine because it loves Ukrainians, but because of the belief that this will further American “greatness and global leadership.”
“Nobody in the US cares about Ukraine’s interests,” Putin told the agency heads.
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While Moscow has no intention of “invading” Europe, it will consider retaliating against the US and its allies for providing Kiev with long-range missiles by supplying adversaries of the West with similar weapons in “sensitive” areas, he added.