Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that U.S. President Joe Biden's remarks suggesting that Russia would attack a NATO member if victorious in Ukraine are "sheer nonsense." He added that Russia has no interest in fighting NATO. The war in Ukraine has led to the deepest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, with Biden warning last year that direct confrontation between NATO and Russia would ignite World War III.
Earlier this month, Biden urged Republicans not to cut off military assistance, warning that if Putin succeeded in Ukraine, the Russian leader would not stop and would attack a NATO country. In a television interview broadcast on Sunday, Putin said, "This is sheer nonsense. I believe that President Biden understands this," suggesting it was an attempt by Biden to justify his "misguided policy" towards Russia. He added, "There is no reason or interest. There is no geopolitical, economic, political, or military interest in fighting NATO countries."
NATO, led by the United States, was established in 1949 to provide Western security against the Soviet Union. Following the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, it expanded to include some former Soviet states and countries from the Warsaw Pact. Putin has repeatedly described NATO's post-Cold War expansion as evidence of the arrogant way the West handles Russian security concerns. Under Article 5 of the NATO treaty, "the parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all."
Putin noted that Finland's accession to NATO in April would compel Russia to "concentrate certain military units" in northern Russia near its borders.
**Cold War?**
The failure of Ukraine's counteroffensive this year has raised questions in the West and within Ukraine about the realism of Ukrainian and Western goals to defeat Russian forces. Officials from Moscow and the West have frequently discussed a "new Cold War" between Russia and China on one side and the West on the other. When asked how to find common ground with the West in light of rhetoric from both sides, Putin said, "They will have to find common ground because they will have to take us into account."
Last month, a senior U.S. State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that Putin would not make peace until he knew the outcome of the November elections in the United States. Putin stated that the West failed to comprehend the extent of changes brought about by the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, which he said removed any real ideological basis for confrontation between Russia and the West.
Putin, a former Soviet intelligence officer who rose to power in 1999, reflected on his impressions of the world in 2000, saying, "I had a truly naive impression." He said, "The truth is that after the fall of the Soviet Union, they believed they had to wait a little to completely destroy Russia."
Putin frames the war as part of a much larger struggle with the United States, which the Kremlin elite claims aims to divide Russia and seize its vast natural resources, followed by settling accounts with China. The West, which views Russia and China as its main threats, asserts that it has no plan to destroy Russia. Ukraine maintains that it will not rest until the last Russian soldier is expelled from its territory.
