Putin said that Russia cannot ignore the nuclear potential of NATO

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that Russia has no choice but to take into account NATO’s nuclear capability, justifying Russia’s recent suspension of its participation in the New START treaty.

As he repeatedly did during the war in Ukraine, Putin said Russia was facing an existential threat because he believed NATO members were seeking a “strategic defeat” for the country. On Russian state television, he said that the suspension of the new START-3 was dictated by the need to “ensure the security, strategic stability” of Russia.

“When all the leading NATO countries have declared their main goal to inflict a strategic defeat on us (…), how can we ignore their nuclear potential under these conditions?” Putin said.

Putin’s main goal in invading Ukraine a year ago was to reduce what he perceived as a threat to Russia’s security, and at times he used that as an excuse to threaten to use nuclear weapons in the conflict.

On Tuesday, Putin said Moscow was suspending its participation in the 2010 New START treaty, saying Russia could not accept U.S. inspections of its nuclear facilities under the treaty while Washington and its NATO allies seek Russia’s defeat in Ukraine. . The Russian president stressed that Moscow is not withdrawing from the treaty in its entirety, while the Russian Foreign Ministry said the country would abide by the limitations of the nuclear weapons treaty and would continue to notify the United States of ballistic missile test launches.

In an interview with Rossiya 1 TV that aired on Sunday – two days after the anniversary of the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – Putin said that although NATO countries are not parties to the treaty, they have become part of the “discussions.” on this issue,” to which Moscow has no objection, especially since it cannot ignore NATO’s nuclear potential.

Putin has argued that the West wants to destroy Russia, a thought he has repeatedly used to justify Russian aggression in Ukraine. “They have one goal: to dissolve the former Soviet Union and its main part, the Russian Federation,” Putin said.

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If the West manages to destroy Russia and establish control, he said, the Russian people may not survive as a single nation. “There will be Muscovites, Urals and others,” he said of a possible fragmentation of Russia. The West could only partially accept Russia into the so-called “family of civilized peoples”, breaking the country into separate parts, he believed.

US President Joe Biden opposed Putin’s statements in a speech in Poland on Tuesday.

“The United States and the countries of Europe do not seek to control or destroy Russia. The West was not plotting an attack on Russia, as Putin said today. And the millions of Russian citizens who only want to live in peace with their neighbors are not their enemies,” he said during a speech in the Polish capital of Warsaw.

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