Putin speaks out after US warns "Russia could attack NATO"

Russian President Vladimir Putin (Photo: TASS).

Reuters reported that President Putin criticized Mr. Biden's warning as "complete nonsense" after the US President warned that Russia could attack a NATO country if Moscow won the war in Ukraine.

Mr. Putin declared that Russia does not want a conflict to break out with the Western military alliance.

The Russia-Ukraine war has caused the deepest crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. Mr Biden warned last year that a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia would trigger World War III.

In his call for Republicans not to block further military aid to Ukraine earlier this month, Biden warned that if Russia wins against Ukraine, Moscow will not stop and will attack a NATO country.

"It's complete nonsense and I think President Biden understands that," Putin said in an interview published by state-run Rossiya television on December 17. The Russian leader added that Biden appeared to be trying to justify the US's "wrong policy" toward Moscow.

"Russia has no reason, no geopolitical , economic, political or military interests to fight with NATO countries," Mr. Putin stressed.

The US-led NATO alliance was founded in 1949 to unite the Western bloc against the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, NATO continued to expand to include several former Soviet and Warsaw Pact countries.

Mr Putin has repeatedly pointed to NATO's post-Cold War expansion as evidence that the West is indifferent to Russia's security concerns.

According to Article 5 of the NATO treaty, "the Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more NATO members in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all."

Mr Putin said Finland's accession to NATO in April would force Russia to "concentrate a number of military units" in northern Russia near the border between the two countries.

In addition, President Putin admitted that he was wrong to assume that the West would establish practical relations with Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Russian leader accused the West of wanting to divide Russia.

In the interview, Mr. Putin said he was a "naive" leader at the beginning of his political career despite his solid background working for the Soviet intelligence agency.

Mr Putin once believed that the West would see Russia as a completely different country after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and that there were no longer any ideological differences that would lead to a serious confrontation between the two sides.

"The fact is that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, they thought that they only needed to wait a little longer to completely destroy Russia," Mr. Putin accused.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-gioi/ong-putin-len-tieng-sau-khi-my-canh-bao-nga-co-the-tan-cong-nato-20231217192901497.htm