Spanish
The President of Russia, Vladímir Putin, on Friday criticized NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte for his statements about the need to prepare for a war with Russia, because, as he recalled, Moscow is no longer considered an "enemy" by the United States.
"How is NATO preparing for a war against Russia if the main country in the Alliance does not consider us an adversary or an enemy?" said the Kremlin chief during his big end-of-year press conference in which he also answers questions from the citizenry.
Putin emphasized that in the new US National Security Strategy, Russia is not defined as an enemy.
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"And the NATO Secretary General is preparing for a war with us (…) Doesn't he know how to read?", said the Russian leader. He insisted that Rutte's words, whom he called an intelligent person, are surprising, since "the United States is the key player in NATO, its founder and main sponsor". Last week, the Kremlin condemned the statements of the NATO Secretary General for calling on Europe to prepare for a war with Russia. "Unfortunately, Mr. Rutte, by making those irresponsible statements, simply doesn't know what he's saying," said Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman. He underlined that those statements can only be made by "the representative of a generation that has forgotten what the Second World War was", in which the Soviet Union lost more than 26 million people. Rutte urged member countries of the Alliance to rapidly increase defense spending and arms production to avoid a war with Russia and warned that the allies are the Kremlin's next target. "The conflict is at our doorstep. Russia has brought war back to Europe and we must be prepared," he added.
