NOVANEWS
… from Southfront
President Putin’s remarks on Russia’s progress in its nuclear rearmament have sparked panic in the West about Moscow’s supposed plans to kick off an arms race and start a new Cold War. But what observers ignored was the core of his message – that it was the West itself that forced Russia to build up its capabilities amid endless provocations.
Vladimir Putin has made it crystal clear that Moscow is on the defensive, years after fruitlessly asking its Western ‘partners’ to stop encircling Russia with a web of strategic weapons, bases and power-changing conflicts – from the Middle East to Eastern Europe.
President Putin’s remarks on Russia’s progress in its nuclear rearmament have sparked panic in the West about Moscow’s supposed plans to kick off an arms race and start a new Cold War. But what observers ignored was the core of his message – that it was the West itself that forced Russia to build up its capabilities amid endless provocations.
Vladimir Putin has made it crystal clear that Moscow is on the defensive, years after fruitlessly asking its Western ‘partners’ to stop encircling Russia with a web of strategic weapons, bases and power-changing conflicts – from the Middle East to Eastern Europe.
Commenting on the president’s “Nobody wanted to listen to us. So listen now,” remarks, which accompanied the new strategic weapons unveiled in his Thursday speech, the Guardian and Voice of America accusedPutin of “threatening” the US with an arms race, while The Washington Post charged the Russian leader with digging up “chilling echoes” of the Cold War.
The Pentagon boasted that it was “ready” to react to “anything that may come our way.” The White House, in turn, accused Moscow of “developing destabilizing weapon systems…in direct violation of its treaty obligations.”