🎙 President Vladimir Putin's answers to questions from the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin programme (December 17, 2023)

❓Question: You said that the US is pursuing an imperial policy, and that [US President] Biden claims that if Putin is not stopped in Ukraine, then that means Russia will attack NATO.

💬 This is complete nonsense, and I believe President Biden understands this as well. It is just a figure of speech to justify his misguided policy towards Russia. This policy is misguided because I don't think that the US is as interested today, in terms of global development, as it was 20 years ago, in inflicting, as they publicly claim, a “strategic defeat” on Russia. I don't think it aligns with the national interests of the US itself. That's the first point.

Secondly, the president of any major NATO country, especially sole NATO master (and the US is the master of NATO, and all of NATO is their backyard) cannot fail to realise that Russia has no reason, no interest – be it geopolitical, economic, political or military – to wage war against NATO countries. We have no territorial claims against each other, and we harbour no intentions to jeopardise our relations with them. We are interested in developing relations.

They [the US] dragged Finland into NATO. Did we have any disputes with Finland? All disputes, including territorial ones, were solved long ago, in the middle of the XX century. We enjoyed the most kind, cordial relations, including economic relations. Everything was developing. <...> There were no problems. And now there will be because we will create the Leningrad Military District and deploy certain military units there.

Do we have a problem with anyone? No we don't. It is they who artificially create problems with us, because they do not want to have Russia as their competitor. That is all.

❓Question: How can we find common ground when there are accusations from all sides?

💬 They will have to find common ground with us, because they will have to reckon with our perspective.

Check out key points made by 🇷🇺 Vladimir Putin during today's extended meet with military leadership:

▫️Aggressive nature of NATO no longer hidden, claims to global superiority directly enshrined in US documents;

▫️ Supply of armored vehicles to Russian army has tripled in 2023;

▫️ Modern weaponry accounts for 95% of Russia's nuclear triad (land-launched nuclear missiles + nuclear-missile-armed submarines + strategic aircraft with nuclear bombs);

▫️15 Yars and Avangard ICBM launchers 🚀 will be delivered by end of this year.

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🎙 Excerpts from President Vladimir Putin's speech at the annual expanded meeting of the Defence Ministry Board (December 19, 2023)

💬 The year of 2023 was a tense one for the Russian Armed Forces, and I want to say at once that our soldiers and officers, commanders at all levels courageously and professionally carried out tasks during special military operation, ensuring the country's sovereignty at the global level, nuclear missile parity and Russia's strategic security.

• The events of this year have confirmed that the West continues to wage hybrid warfare against Russia, actively providing the Kiev regime with real-time intelligence, sending military advisers, transferring modern weapons systems, including highly mobile multiple rocket launchers, long-range missile systems, cluster munitions and a large number of new UAVs. As we know, the West also planning to hand over F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine: pilots are being trained in the West.

📈 The activity of the NATO military bloc as a whole has also increased dramatically recently. Significant forces from the US, including aircraft, have been moved to our borders. The number of Alliance's troops in Eastern and Central Europe has increased. Finland, as we know, has already been drawn into NATO, and Sweden is planning to join. In fact, this means another stage in the alliance's approach to our borders.

❗️ The West is not abandoning its strategy to deter Russia and its aggressive goals in Ukraine. Well, we are not going to give up our goals of a special military operation either.

• Assessing the current situation on the ground, on the line of contact, we can say with confidence that our troops have the initiative. <...> The enemy is suffering heavy losses and has largely squandered its reserves. Incidentally, the myth of the invulnerability of Western military equipment has also collapsed.

☝️ All attempts, as they said in the West, to inflict on us a military defeat, a strategic defeat, crashed against the courage and fortitude of our soldiers.

⚡️Russia doesn't need NATO countries, won't need them in the future: Vladimir Putin

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