NATO is currently justifying its planned defense spending hike to 5% of its members’ GDP and military buildup in Europe by pointing to Russia’s “aggressiveness,” Putin said, adding that the bloc’s members are “turning everything upside down” when they make statements such as these.
“No one is saying a word about how we’ve come up to the Russian special military operation,” the president said, adding that the roots of the Ukraine conflict go back decades when Moscow was “blatantly lied to” about NATO expansion. “What followed was one expansion wave after another,” he stated.
Russia’s security concerns about the bloc’s activities have been consistently ignored and met with silence, according to Putin. “Isn’t it aggressive behavior? That is precisely aggressive behavior, which the West does not want to pay attention to.”
According to the president, Western nations have supported separatism and even terrorism as long as it is directed against Russia. Terrorist groups were outright ignored if they acted on Russian territory, he claimed.
“Everything was good as long as it was against Russia. Haven’t we seen this? They [the West] saw it as well. Yet, they only talk about our aggressiveness.”
He stressed, “We are not aggressive. The Collective West is.”
The president’s words came just days after the NATO summit in The Hague, where the bloc’s members made a commitment to hike defense spending to 5% of GDP annually by 2035. The decision was made “in the face of profound security threats and challenges, in particular the long-term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security,” the summit’s statement read.
Russia has said it considers NATO expansion towards its borders to be a major national security threat, and cited Kiev’s ambitions to join the US-led bloc among the key reasons that led to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.
Putin also said Moscow is prepared for a third round of negotiations with Kiev, adding that the talks should center on proposed agreements to resolve the Ukraine conflict.
Asked by reporters how the settlement process was progressing – and when a third round of talks with Ukraine might take place – Putin said the heads of both negotiating teams remain in constant contact, speaking regularly by phone.
He added that draft proposals from both Russia and Ukraine should form the basis of the next round of negotiations, the time and venue for which still need to be agreed on.
”These are two completely opposing documents. But that’s exactly what negotiations are for – to look for ways to bridge the gap. The fact that they’re polar opposites isn’t surprising in my view,” Putin said. ”I’d rather not go into details, because I believe it’s neither appropriate nor helpful to get ahead of the negotiations themselves.”
During the previous round of direct negotiations in Istanbul earlier this month, Russian and Ukrainian representatives exchanged draft memorandums outlining their respective visions for a road map toward a peace deal and agreed to exchange prisoners of war. Moscow also unilaterally decided to repatriate the bodies of slain Ukrainian troops as a humanitarian gesture.
Since then, Moscow has handed over 6,000 bodies to Kiev and is ready to return nearly 3,000 more, Putin said. “But it’s now up to the Ukrainian side to accept the remains of their fallen soldiers,” he added.
”We agreed that once this stage is completed, we would hold a third round of negotiations. Overall, we’re ready – we just need to agree on the time and place.”
