President Vladimir\u00a0Putin said in an interview with German television that NATO expansion since 2001 significantly changed the geo-political situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have witnessed two waves of NATO expansion since 2001,\u201d Putin said. \u201cIf I remember correctly, seven countries – Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and three Baltic States, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – joined NATO in 2004. Two more countries joined in 2009. Those were significant geopolitical game changers.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurthermore, the number of military bases is growing,\u201d he said. \u201cDoes Russia have military bases around the world? NATO and the United States have military bases scattered all over the globe, including in areas close to our borders, and their number is growing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMoreover, just recently it was decided to deploy Special Operations Forces, again in close proximity to our borders,\u201d Putin said.<\/p>\n
The president also said that Russia resumed the flights of its strategic aviation several years ago since it saw no moves on behalf of the United States and NATO to meet Russia halfway.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have mentioned various exercises, flights, ship movements, and so on,\u201d the Russian president said in response to a question from the German correspondent. \u201cIs all of this going on? Yes, it is indeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, first of all, you said\u2026 that they have been conducted in the international European airspace. Well, it is either international [neutral] or European airspace,\u201d Putin said. \u201cSo, please note that our exercises have been conducted exclusively in international waters and international airspace.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the\u00a0interview with ARD Putin also said that Moscow was concerned by the risk of ethnic cleansing in Ukraine, adding that Kiev should stop using force in southeastern regions and create conditions for a political dialogue.<\/p>\n
“It is important to\u00a0stop the bloodshed, mutual attacks and create the conditions for\u00a0a political dialogue.\u00a0This is important. You have none of this \u2014 you have no political dialogue,” the Russian leader said.<\/p>\n
“We are very concerned that an idea of ethnic cleansing could arise there. We are afraid of Ukraine slipping into neo-Nazism,\u201d the Russian leader warned.<\/p>\n
“Today there is fighting in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian central authorities have sent the armed forces there and they even use ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n
“Does anybody speak about it? Not a single word. Does it mean that you want the Ukrainian government to annihilate everyone there, all political enemies and opponents? Is that what you want? We do not want it and will not let it happen,” he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s one thing missing: for an understanding to be successful, stable and grow, everyone needs to have a feeling that this is their land, their home no matter what language they speak \u2014 whether it’s Hungarian, Russian, Ukrainian or Polish,” Putin told the German channel.<\/p>\n
But he added that relations with Germany are an example to follow. “Look at the friendship that has been established between Russia and Germany in the past 10\u201315 years,\u201d Putin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see it as a very good base, a good foundation for the development of relations not only between our two countries, but also between Russia and Europe as a whole, for the harmonization of relations in the world. It will be a pity if we let it go to waste,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Vladimir\u00a0Putin said in an interview with German television that NATO expansion since 2001 significantly changed the geo-political situation. \u201cWe have witnessed two waves of NATO expansion since 2001,\u201d Putin said. \u201cIf I remember correctly, seven countries – Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and three Baltic States, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – joined NATO in 2004. … Continue reading “Putin on NATO expansion, ethnic cleansing”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2961,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3],"tags":[8655,10568,1343,66,7484],"class_list":["post-16908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-ethnic-cleansing","tag-nato-expansion","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-ukraine"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16908"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16911,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16908\/revisions\/16911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}