Moscow ready to respond to any threat – Putin
Russia is ready to respond to any threats, President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that Moscow still supports a diplomatic path to ease tensions despite the West’s destructive policies.
Speaking ahead of the Security Council meeting on Monday, Putin sounded the alarm with regard to the “extreme danger of further deterioration” of the geopolitical situation, particularly amid the Ukraine conflict.
He added that while Russia had offered “specific ideas” to correct this trajectory, these “warnings and initiatives received no clear response.”
“There should be no doubt about this: Russia is capable of responding to any existing and newly emerging threats. Responding not with words, but through the application of… military-technical measures,” Putin warned.
He noted Moscow’s decision to abandon the unilateral moratorium on the deployment of ground-based intermediate- and shorter-range missiles last month, describing it as “a forced step” caused by the need to counter plans to deploy US- and other Western-made missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
Putin stressed, however, that Russia is not interested in warmongering and saber-rattling. “We are confident in the reliability and effectiveness of our national deterrent forces, but at the same time we are not interested in further escalating tensions or fueling an arms race.”
He added that Russia has always prioritized “political and diplomatic methods for maintaining international peace, based on the principles of equality, indivisibility of security, and mutual consideration of interests.”
Putin signaled that Moscow is ready to prolong the 2010 New START Treaty, the last remaining arms control pact between Russia and the US, which expires in February. It limits each side to no more than 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and 700 deployed delivery systems, and provides for inspections and data exchanges to verify compliance.
This initiative, Putin said, “could make a significant contribution to creating an atmosphere conducive to substantive strategic dialogue with the United States.”
