Putin: President Biden warned that Russia will not allow NATO bases to be installed in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the question of why Russia does not attack Ukraine provocative.
He stated this today in Sochi at a press conference with the Prime Minister of Greece, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“This is a provocative question. Russia pursues a peaceful foreign policy. But it has the right to ensure its security in the medium and longer term. And we are discussing this with all our partners, including the President of the United States.
We cannot help but be concerned about the prospect of Ukraine's possible admission to NATO. Because this will certainly be followed by the deployment there of appropriate military contingents, bases and weapons that threaten us. We assume that at least this time our concerns will be heard, although during the previous decades we asked not to do so, but NATO infrastructure inevitably moved closer to our borders.
Now we see missile defense systems in Poland and Romania. We have every reason to assume that the same thing will happen if Ukraine joins NATO - already on Ukrainian territory. How can we not think about this? It would be simply criminal inaction on our part to limply observe what is happening there,” Putin said.
According to him, US President Joe Biden suggested that he create a special structure to discuss these issues.
“I understand that this is of legitimate interest to the Russian public and the international one. We will do this as publicly as possible,” Putin said.
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