Vladimir Putin accused the West of “coming to our door with missiles”, and he reiterated his request that NATO no longer expand in Europe.
The Russian President did not take any measures to ease tensions Ukraine He said at a television news conference that if he believes that Ukraine or its Western allies are preparing to launch an attack on Russian agents in the country, he will be prepared to intervene.
“They keep telling us: war, war, war,” Putin said on Thursday. “There is an impression, maybe they are preparing for the third military operation [in Ukraine] And give us a fair warning: Do not intervene, do not protect these people, but if you intervene and protect them, there will be new sanctions. Perhaps we should be prepared for this. “
Analysts said that Russia may be seeking reasons for declaring war because it has deployed more than 100,000 soldiers and tanks and artillery near the Ukrainian border.This week, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu Accusing American mercenaries Transporting chemical weapons to the front lines of the conflict zone, although he did not provide any evidence to support this claim.
There are few signs that the Ukrainian army is preparing to launch an offensive in Donbass Static for six years. Since the start of the fighting in 2014, more than 14,000 people have died.
Putin stated that he does not want to go to war with Ukraine, but will seek new security assurances from the West in the upcoming talks with the United States, reiterating his controversial request that NATO eastern members dismantle the troops and forces that emerged after joining the alliance in 1997. Military installations. .
“We have made it clear that NATO’s eastward move is unacceptable,” he said. “The United States is at our door, and the missile is at our door. Isn’t it too demanding not to install a shock absorption system? If the missile is placed on the border with Canada or Mexico, how would the Americans react?”
Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, he once again expressed anger at NATO’s expansion, which has become the core issue of his growing confrontation with the West.
“Sometimes we seem to live in different worlds,” he said. “They said they will not expand, but they are expanding.”
Putin said Talks with the U.S. Should start next year in Geneva, adding that “the ball is now on their court”.
He said: “The US partners told us that they are going to start this discussion in Geneva early next year, these talks. Representatives from both sides have been appointed. I hope that the situation will fully unfold under these circumstances.”
Washington has confirmed that it is ready to hold talks in January, although officials have made it clear that they are not prepared to discuss European security issues without the presence of Europeans.
But the Kremlin warned Washington not to delay, and Putin stated that he hopes to get security assurance “immediately and immediately.” His spokesman Dmitry Peskov (Dmitry Peskov) said he was not ready for a “marathon” meeting.
As weapons and critical logistical infrastructure continue to reach the border between Russia and Ukraine by rail, all of these make it possible for Russia to launch a new offensive in January.
On Thursday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it would deploy hundreds of Russian paratroopers to conduct exercises in Crimea (which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014) and the nearby Krasnodar region. The Ministry of National Defense stated that the exercise will simulate the occupation of territory, involving 1,200 soldiers and more than 250 vehicles and aircraft.
Experts from Russian state television have also become increasingly aggressive, openly discussing the possibility of conflict with NATO. “The TV sets in our barracks have been fighting NATO hysterically all day,” the imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny wrote in a prison statement posted online. “On every channel, they are talking about the threat of NATO. Putin himself lamented that NATO is on our doorstep and we have nowhere to go. It seems that the whole of Russia is only living on this, and people no longer feel about any other news. interest.”
Putin made the above remarks at a four-hour press conference held every December in the Kremlin on Thursday. The event usually has a carnival atmosphere, because serious geopolitical issues are followed by softball issues aimed at humanizing the Russian president. Some reporters arrived in costumes. Due to the coronavirus, the Kremlin reduced the number of reporters in the hall to 500 and installed a special tunnel to spray aerosol disinfectant on the participants.
Within four hours, Putin answered three questions about the possibility of a war with Ukraine, while also avoiding the declining vaccination rate (he claimed that the situation in Europe is equally bad), Gazprom’s in the European gas crisis (He claimed it was invented by him)), his suppression of internal dissidents (“exaggeration”), and the search for the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya and opposition politician Boris Nem Zov’s mastermind (“Exhausted”, Putin said).
“I want to remind you of what our opponents have said over the centuries:’Russia cannot be defeated, it can only be divided from within’,” he told a BBC Russian reporter during the event, answering questions about his arrest. Opposition figures and announced dozens of news media as foreign agents.
Putin also answered some questions about “abolishing culture” and supported Harry Potter writer JK Rowling because he compared the views of transgender rights with the new coronavirus.
