Putin in Italy: Russia will not attack NATO
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that they have no plans to attack NATO and is only responding to threats by the US and NATO military expansion on its borders. Speaking to Italian newspaper, Il Corriere della Sera, he said that they are not building up its offensive military capabilities overseas.
Speaking to the paper on the eve of his visit to Italy, Putin stressed that peopleshould not take the ongoing “Russian aggression” scaremongering in the West seriously, as a global military conflict is absolutely unthinkable in the modern world.
“I think that only an insane person and only in a dream can imagine that Russia would suddenly attack NATO. I think some countries are simply taking advantage of people’s fears with regard to Russia. They just want to play the role of front-line countries that should receive some supplementary military, economic, financial or some other aid,” Putin said.
He also so that there were specific countries were deliberately nurturing such fears, he added, saying that hypothetically the US could need an external threat to maintain its leadership in the Atlantic community. “Iran is clearly not very scary or big enough” for this, Putin noted with irony.
Russia’s President also pointed out to the journalists to compare the global military presence of Russia and the US/NATO, as well as their military spending levels. He also urged them to look at the steps each side has taken in connection with the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russia’s military policy is “not global, offensive, or aggressive,” Putin stressed, adding that Russia has“virtually no bases abroad,” and the few that do exist are remnants of its Soviet past.
He pointed out that there were small contingents of Russian armed forces in Tajikistan on the border with Afghanistan, mainly due to the high terrorist threat in the area. There is an airbase in Kyrgyzstan, which was opened at request of the Kyrgyz authorities to deal with a terrorist threat there. Russia also has a military unit in Armenia.
Putin also highlighted that the fact Russia has been working towards downsizing its global military presence while on the contrary the US has been doing the exact opposite. “We have dismantled our bases in various regions of the world, including Cuba, Vietnam, and so on,” the president stressed. “I invite you to publish a world map in your newspaper and to mark all the US military bases on it. You will see the difference.”
source: World Bulletin
