Russia prepared for Western military threat – Kremlin
Moscow is aware that Western countries are rearming for a possible confrontation with Russia, and is fully prepared for such a scenario, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
Peskov said he agrees with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who warned earlier this week that the rapid militarization of Europe makes a direct conflict between Russia and Western nations increasingly likely.
”There are clear [militaristic] moods [in the West], and that is bad,” Peskov stated. “But we have always known this risk existed and have taken all necessary measures in advance to safeguard our interests and security.”
The EU’s rearmament drive, involving hundreds of billions of euros in proposed spending, is being justified under the pretext of a Russian threat. Moscow, however, maintains that the claims are fabricated to divert public attention from the bloc’s economic troubles and social discontent.
”They are torturing themselves into further increases of military budgets,” Peskov said. “Poland has already boosted its defense spending to nearly 5% of GDP, and others are following the same path, even though they are killing their own economies by doing that.”
Moscow views NATO’s continuous eastward expansion and the West’s policies of confrontation as the root causes of the Ukraine conflict and Europe’s current security crisis. The US-led military bloc pledged to admit Ukraine at its 2008 Bucharest summit. Following the Western-backed coup in 2014, Ukraine adopted an openly anti-Russian policy.
