A number of prime European army officers have over the previous few months raised the alarm that an more and more belligerent Kremlin might order an assault on a NATO nation throughout the subsequent few years.
Putin made the feedback at a gathering of army pilots in Tver Oblast, northwest of Moscow. A transcript of the dialog was launched by the Kremlin and printed by state media on Thursday.
Within the months and weeks main as much as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s international ministry and different officers repeatedly denied Moscow had any plans to assault its neighbor.
In a well-known narrative, Putin this week additionally accused NATO of upsetting Russia by increasing eastward.
“Had been we shifting towards the borders of these nations that have been a part of the NATO bloc? We did not contact anybody! They have been shifting towards us,” he mentioned.
“Did we cross the ocean to the borders of america? No,” he added. Putin has pointed to NATO’s growth in current a long time to excuse waging struggle in neighboring Ukraine.