DrRussian President Vladimir Putin has described Western countries’ fears of a Russian invasion of NATO territory as „nonsense.” They get the idea that Russia wants to attack NATO. Have you gone completely crazy? Are you as stupid as this table? Who came up with that? This is nonsense, you see. “This is nonsense,” Putin said on Wednesday at a meeting with representatives of major international news agencies in St. Petersburg.
When asked, Putin said: “There is no reason to look for any imperialist ambitions on our part. nothing.”
The information meeting in the Lashta Center skyscraper of gas giant Gazprom was the first international meeting since the start of Putin’s war against Ukraine in 2022. The president distributed it to all parties – and also praised the AfD.
He called Western arms shipments to Ukraine a „very dangerous step” and criticized Germany in particular. “Delivering weapons to a war zone is always bad,” Putin said. “It gets worse when those who supply them not only supply them with weapons, but also control them. This is a very serious and dangerous move.”
Regarding Germany, Putin said that the appearance of „the first German tanks on Ukrainian territory” had „already caused a moral and ethical shock in Russia” because of the historical burden of World War II „if they now use missiles.” Putin said, „Being on Russian territory will completely destroy Russian-German relations.”
This time, Putin does not sit at the end of the table, but in the center right
Source: Agence France-Presse/Vladimir Astabkovich
In this case, he threatened to respond. He said: “We are thinking, why do we not have the right to deploy weapons in areas of the world where attacks are carried out on sensitive targets for those countries that do this in relation to Russia?” Then he added: „This means that the answer could be asymmetric.”
When asked about Putin’s comments, a federal government spokesman said: „We took note of the statements.”
“I did not start a war in Ukraine”
In response to Moscow’s attack in the northeastern Kharkiv region, some Western countries recently allowed Ukraine to use weapons they had supplied against targets in the Russian border region, including the United States and Germany. Putin had already threatened dire consequences at the end of May if the West gave Ukraine the green light to use its weapons against targets in Russia.
Putin reiterated on Wednesday that it was not Russia that „ignited the war in Ukraine.” Instead, he blamed the pro-Western revolution in Ukraine in 2014, which was followed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and fighting in eastern Ukraine between Kiev’s forces and pro-Russian separatists. Putin said: “Everyone believes that it was Russia that started the war in Ukraine.” “I want to stress that no one in the West, in Europe, wants to remember how this tragedy began.”
Contacts with representatives of the Alternative for Germany party were also discussed. Putin defended the meetings between Russian representatives and party representatives. “We will work with everyone who wants to cooperate with Russia,” Putin said. “We do not see any signs of neo-Nazism in the actions of the AfD,” the Kremlin head said.
Putin does not expect any changes after the US elections
There are no „regular relations” with the German opposition party. But if someone calls for normal relations with Russia, Moscow supports this. Russia has no right to assess whether there is a political force operating within the framework of the Constitution. „But we don’t see anything that would cause us concern.”
Putin complained that representatives of alternative views are immediately declared opponents of the state in Germany, which itself has a reputation for nipping any Russian opposition in the bud and allowing dissidents to be politically persecuted. “Every alternative point of view is treated as an anti-state position. Everyone is immediately appointed agents of the Kremlin.” In the past, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov received AfD co-chair Tino Shruppala in Moscow as a state guest.
Given the period following the US presidential elections, Putin does not expect a fundamental change in Washington’s policy towards Moscow. He added: „The result does not mean much to us.” Russia will work with the president elected by American citizens. In the past, Putin has said he would prefer incumbent President Joe Biden to win because the president is more predictable.
At the same time, Putin criticized the legal measures against former President Donald Trump, who wants to run against Biden on November 5. The head of the Kremlin claimed that the justice system in the United States was being used in political struggle. Trump is confronting things that happened a long time ago, suggesting that he will be subject to political persecution. Many people understand this and therefore support it.
Putin himself was subjected to international criticism for deliberately eliminating political opponents in the presidential elections in Russia. Russia’s judicial system is seen as an arbitrary tool to enforce the Kremlin’s grip on power.
