Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed Western fears of a Russian invasion of NATO territory as alleged “bullshit.” “You made up that Russia wants to attack NATO. Have you gone completely crazy? Are you as stupid as this table? Who made that up? That’s nonsense, you understand. Bullshit,” Putin said on Wednesday at a meeting with representatives of major international news agencies in St. Petersburg.
When asked, Putin said: “There is no reason to look for any imperial ambitions on our part. There are none.”
The media meeting in the Lakhta Center skyscraper of the gas giant Gazprom was the first international meeting since the start of Putin’s war against Ukraine in 2022. The president lashed out at all sides – and also praised the AfD.
He described the Western arms deliveries to Ukraine as a “very dangerous step” and criticized Germany in particular. “Delivering weapons to a war zone is always bad,” Putin said. “It is even worse when those who supply them not only supply weapons but also control them. This is a very serious and very dangerous step.”
Referring to Germany, Putin said that the appearance of the “first German tanks on Ukrainian soil” had “already caused a moral and ethical shock in Russia” due to the historical burden of World War II. “If they now use missiles to attack facilities on Russian territory, it will completely destroy Russian-German relations,” Putin said.
He threatened to respond in this case. “We are thinking about why we should not have the right to deploy weapons in regions of the world where attacks are carried out on sensitive objects of those countries that do this in relation to Russia?” he said. Then he added: “This means that the response can be asymmetric.”
When asked about Putin’s words, a spokesman for the German government said: “We have taken note of the comments.”
In response to an offensive launched by Moscow in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv, some Western countries, including the US and Germany, recently allowed Ukraine to use weapons they supplied against targets in the Russian border region. Putin had already threatened serious consequences at the end of May if the West gave Ukraine the green light to use its weapons against targets in Russia.
Putin reiterated on Wednesday that Russia did not “start the war in Ukraine.” Instead, he blamed the pro-Western revolution in Ukraine in 2014, which was followed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and fighting in eastern Ukraine between Kiev forces and pro-Russian separatists. “Everyone thinks that Russia started the war in Ukraine,” Putin said. “I want to stress that no one in the West, in Europe, wants to remember how this tragedy started.”
Contacts with representatives of the AfD were also discussed. Putin defended meetings between Russian representatives and representatives of the party. “We will work with everyone who wants to cooperate with Russia,” Putin said. “We see no signs of neo-Nazism in the actions of the AfD,” the Kremlin chief said.
There are no “systemic relations” with the German opposition party. But if someone advocates normal relations with Russia, Moscow supports that. It is not Russia’s job to judge whether a political force is acting within the framework of the constitution. “But we don’t see anything that would cause us concern.”
Representatives of alternative viewpoints are immediately declared to be opponents of the state in Germany, complained Putin, who himself has a reputation for nipping any Russian opposition in the bud and politically persecuting opponents. “Every alternative viewpoint is treated as an anti-state stance. And everyone is immediately declared an agent of the Kremlin,” criticized the Russian president. In the past, for example, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov received AfD co-chairman Tino Chrupalla in Moscow as a state guest.
Looking ahead to the period after the US presidential election, Putin does not expect a fundamental change in Washington’s policy towards Moscow. “The result is not very important for us,” he said. Russia will work with the president that the US citizens elect. In the past, Putin had said that he would prefer an election victory for incumbent Joe Biden because the president is more predictable.
At the same time, Putin criticized the legal proceedings against former President Donald Trump, who wants to run against Biden in the election on November 5. The judiciary in the USA is being used for political struggle, the Kremlin chief claimed. Trump is being confronted with things that happened a long time ago, which suggests political persecution. Many people understand this and therefore support him.
Putin himself is being criticized internationally for deliberately eliminating political opponents in presidential elections in Russia. Russia’s judicial system is seen as an arbitrary instrument for ensuring that the Kremlin chief maintains his hold on power.