Putin Dismisses NATO Buildup

(MENAFN) Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected the significance and justification of NATO’s enhanced military presence, labeling the alliance’s increased defense efforts as neither a concern nor a challenge to Moscow.

He emphasized that the push by NATO to allocate more funds toward military purposes holds little relevance for Russia’s national safety.

“We do not consider any rearmament of NATO to be a threat to the security of the Russian Federation,” Putin remarked on Thursday while addressing global media executives at a gathering in St. Petersburg.

He went further to describe the idea of expanding NATO members’ military budgets as ineffective, explicitly calling out the suggestion of raising defense expenditures to 5 percent of gross domestic product.

“Any rearmament of NATO countries makes no sense,” he stated.

Putin also harshly criticized the prevailing Western portrayal of Russian "aggression," arguing that such accusations lack basis.

“The legend that Russia is going to attack NATO is nonsense,” he declared, dismissing the narrative as a fabrication.

Highlighting the scale of NATO’s defense allocation, he pointed out that “NATO countries spend USD1.4 trillion on defense, more than all the world’s countries combined.”

This, he implied, reflects an excessive and disproportionate military focus by the alliance.

In a broader critique of the West, Putin condemned what he sees as hypocrisy in global rule-making.

“You write rules for others, but you yourself are not going to follow them. Who will live by such rules?” he asked, accusing Western powers of failing to adhere to the very standards they expect others to follow.

These comments were delivered against a backdrop of escalating friction between Russia and NATO, particularly in relation to the conflict in Ukraine, ongoing military maneuvers in Eastern Europe, and recent discussions within the alliance about strengthening long-term defense strategies.

MENAFN19062025000045017167ID1109695398