Boris Pistorius has contradicted the bloc\u2019s chief, Mark Rutte, who earlier claimed that Western Europe is Russia\u2019s \u201cnext target\u201d<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin does not want to engage in a direct conflict with NATO, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has said.
\nNATO chief Mark Rutte claimed earlier this month that \u201cwe are Russia\u2019s next target\u201d once the Ukraine conflict ends. He suggested that Moscow \u201ccould be ready to use military force against NATO within five years,\u201d urging member states to ramp up military spending as soon as possible.
\nWhen asked about Rutte\u2019s comments during an interview with Die Zeit newspaper on Monday, Pistorius replied: \u201cI don\u2019t believe in such a scenario.\u201d
\n\u201cIn my estimation, Putin is not interested in waging a full-scale world war against NATO. He wants to destroy NATO from within… by undermining its unity,\u201d he claimed.
\nAccording to Pistorius, Moscow is also \u201cstrategically working to get the Americans to withdraw\u201d from Europe.
\nDuring his end-of-year Q&A session last week, Putin said he knew Rutte as a \u201csmart man\u201d from his time as the Dutch prime minister, but added that \u201cI sometimes want to ask him: What nonsense are you spouting about war with Russia?\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
NATO chief is a \u2018smart man spouting nonsense\u2019 \u2013 Putin<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are preparing for a war with Russia. Can you read? Why don\u2019t you read the new US national security strategy, what does it say?\u201d Putin stressed.
\nThe document, which was released by the administration of US President Donald Trump in early December, does not mention Russia as a threat to the West, explicitly states that NATO should not expand further, and criticizes the EU\u2019s political and cultural direction.
\nOn Monday, Russia Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov echoed Putin\u2019s comments, saying that Moscow is ready to provide legal guarantees that it will not attack NATO and the EU as part of a Ukraine conflict settlement based on the principle of equal and indivisible security.
\nMoscow has repeatedly rejected claims that it harbors any aggressive plans against NATO, suggesting they are only being made by Western politicians to distract the public from domestic problems and justify the militarization of their countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Boris Pistorius has contradicted the bloc\u2019s chief, Mark Rutte, who earlier claimed that Western Europe is Russia\u2019s \u201cnext target\u201d Russian President Vladimir Putin does not want to engage in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t