St. Petersburg:
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday advised a gathering of overseas information retailers that Moscow harbours no “imperial ambitions” and dismissed as “bollocks” the concept Russia might assault NATO.
“There is no such thing as a must search for some imperial ambitions of ours. There are none,” Putin mentioned in reply to a query from AFP in regards to the presence of Soviet and Russian imperial flags on the headquarters of Russian vitality large Gazprom the place the assembly came about.
“There is no such thing as a must search for one thing that isn’t there,” he mentioned, including: “Do not make up a picture of Russia as an enemy. You’ll solely hurt yourselves.”
“They’ve give you this concept that Russia desires to assault NATO. Have you ever misplaced your thoughts? Are you as thick as two brief planks? Who made this up? It is nonsense, it is bollocks,” Putin advised reporters.
Russia denied for months that it was making ready a navy offensive in Ukraine earlier than launching the assault on February 24, 2022, accusing Western powers of attempting to make use of their Ukrainian ally to hurt Russia.
Russia has additionally introduced the annexation of 5 Ukrainian areas and several other Russian officers, together with Putin himself, have identified that these territories beforehand belonged to the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.
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