President Vladimir Putin has accused the west of forcing Russia into a deadly arms race warning that his country was more than ready to deal with any confrontation.
He said Russia’s “strategic nuclear forces are in a state of full readiness for use,” though he warned that a global nuclear conflict would “destroy civilization.”
The defiant Russia leader sounded the alarm during his annual State of the Nation address on Thursday.
“They [in the West] should finally understand — and I just told them — that we too have weapons that can destroy targets on their territories,” he said.
“We remember the fate of those who sent their contingents to the territory of our country,” Putin continued, alluding to Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union. “Now the consequences for the potential interventionists will be much more tragic.”
He accused the West of instigating the war in Ukraine, but also to highlight state social support programs and the Russian economy’s resilience against Western sanctions.
“The West miscalculated and ran into the firm position and determination of our multinational people,” Putin told an audience of government officials, members of parliament and civil society figures who gathered at Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor.
“Russia won’t let anyone interfere in its internal affairs,” he added.
But by the end of his address, Putin made clear that he sees Russia’s military victory over Ukraine as the true measure of the country’s success and the key to its future.
