Putin accuses NATO of complicity in the crimes of the "Kyiv regime"

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused NATO countries of being complicit, albeit indirect, in the crimes of the "Kyiv regime" for supplying him with weapons free of charge to bomb residential neighborhoods, in an interview broadcast this Sunday by the Russian state television.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
26 February 2023 Sunday 08:24
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Putin accuses NATO of complicity in the crimes of the "Kyiv regime"

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused NATO countries of being complicit, albeit indirect, in the crimes of the "Kyiv regime" for supplying him with weapons free of charge to bomb residential neighborhoods, in an interview broadcast this Sunday by the Russian state television.

"It's not just technical-military cooperation. Do they (NATO countries) receive money? No, they don't!" stressed the president in statements to the "Moscow-Kremlin-Putin" program broadcast on Sundays by the Rossía 1 channel .

The Russian president stressed that the weapons, worth tens of billions of dollars, are being transferred to Ukraine "unilaterally", and this means that "albeit indirectly, it is complicity with the crimes of the Kyiv regime, including the shelling of residential neighbourhoods".

As he has done repeatedly during the Ukraine war, Putin claimed that Russia faces an existential threat because, in his view, NATO members seek the country's "strategic defeat."

As for the suspension of Russia's participation in the New START treaty, the latest nuclear pact between the United States and this country, Putin said he had no choice but to take NATO's nuclear capabilities into account.

Putin's overall goal in invading Ukraine a year ago was to reduce what he perceived to be threats to Russia's security, and he has sometimes used this as a justification for threats to use nuclear weapons in the conflict. Putin declared on Tuesday that Moscow was suspending its participation in the 2010 New START treaty and said Russia could not accept US inspections of its nuclear sites under the pact while Washington and its NATO allies seek Russia's defeat in Ukraine.

The Russian president stressed that Moscow would not withdraw from the pact entirely, and the Russian Foreign Ministry said the country would respect the limits of the nuclear weapons treaty and continue to notify the US about ballistic missile test launches. .

Likewise, Putin insisted on his thesis that the objective of the West is the partition of Russia. "They have only one goal: to liquidate the extinct Soviet Union and its fundamental part, the Russian Federation. And then, perhaps, they will welcome us into the so-called family of civilized peoples, but each piece separately," in order "to be able to control it," Putin said .

The Kremlin chief indicated that Russia understands and agrees that the world must change. "What are we against? Against the fact that the new world that is being configured is built solely in the interest of a single country, in this case the United States," he added.

President Joe Biden responded to Putin's claims in a speech in Poland on Tuesday. “The United States and the nations of Europe do not seek to control or destroy Russia. The West was not plotting to attack Russia, as Putin said today. And millions of Russian citizens who just want to live in peace with their neighbors are not the enemy, ”he noted during the speech in the Polish capital Warsaw.