Vladimir Putin condemns NATO “imperialist ambitions” World | D.W.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday (06.29.2022) denounced NATO’s “imperialist ambitions” in seeking to consolidate its “supremacy” through the conflict in Ukraine.

Putin visited Turkmenistan saying that “the well-being of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people is not the goal of the West or NATO, but a means of safeguarding their own interests.”

“The countries leading NATO … want to assert their hegemony, their imperial ambitions,” he added.

According to Putin, the Atlantic Alliance and “above all, the United States have long had an external adversary around which they can unite their allies.”

“We gave them this opportunity, we gave them the opportunity to unite the whole world around them,” the Russian president said paradoxically.

In the Turkmen capital, Putin promised that “there is no problem” with Sweden and Finland joining the Atlantic Alliance.

“Sweden and Finland can join if they want. It depends on them. They can join whatever they want,” he told a news conference in the capital, Ashgabat.

Russia has denied responsibility for the mall

But he warned that “if military groups and military infrastructure are stationed there, we will be forced to respond symmetrically and create the same threats in the regions where threats against us emerge.”

The process of joining the alliance of Sweden and Finland was officially launched during the NATO summit in Madrid on Wednesday.

So far, Moscow has condemned the aspirations of these two Nordic countries.

According to kyiv, the Russian leader also used a press conference to deny Moscow responsibility for Monday’s bombing of a shopping center in Kremenchuk that killed at least 18 people.

“Our military is not bombing civilian infrastructure. We have the ability to know what’s everywhere,” he assured.

The day after the attack, Russia said it had bombed an arsenal, setting fire to an abandoned shopping center.

mg (afp, Reuters)