RUSSIA-FINLAND/PUTIN Putin says Russia would be forced to aim armed forces at any aggressors

Record ID: 151347

  • Title: RUSSIA-FINLAND/PUTIN Putin says Russia would be forced to aim armed forces at any aggressors
  • Date: 16th June 2015
  • Summary: NOVO-OGARYOVO, RUSSIA (JUNE 16, 2015) (REUTERS) RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN AND FINNISH PRESIDENT SAULI NIINISTO ENTERING ROOM, GETTING SEATED PUTIN ADDRESSING NIINISTO PUTIN AND NIINISTO AT TALKS NIINISTO ADDRESSING PUTIN PUTIN AND NIINISTO AT TALKS PUTIN LISTENING TO NIINISTO NIINISTO LISTENING TO INTERPRETER PUTIN AND NIINISTO DURING TALKS
  • Embargoed: 1st July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8OELUZGMXV8Q3AKWIOX1LKJ1T
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday (June 16) that Russia was concerned about an anti-missile defence system near its borders, after announcing that Russia would add more than 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) to its nuclear arsenal this year.
    "If someone threatens some of our territories we will have to aim our armed forces, modern attack capabilities at those territories which threaten us, what else can we do?", Putin said at a joint news conference following talks with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto.
    "NATO is moving closer to our borders, it is not us who is moving somewhere," Russian president continued.
    Putin made his comments a day after Russian officials denounced a U.S. plan to station tanks and heavy weapons in NATO member states on Russia's border. Putin said it was the most aggressive act by Washington since the Cold War a generation ago.
    "We are more worried by the extension of the anti-missile defence system, this is a serious issue of strategic importance," Putin said.
    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed concern over Putin's missile announcement and said no one wanted to see backsliding "to a kind of a Cold War status."
    Tension has flared anew between Russia and Western powers over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis, in which pro-Russian separatist forces have seized a large part of the country's east after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in early 2014.
    Conflict in the east of Ukraine was also discussed at the meeting between Russian and Finnish presidents, which was taking place on the day of a contact group meeting in Minsk.
    "If something didn't suit us in the Minsk peace deal we wouldn't have signed it," said Putin adding that Russia considers the Minsk agreements "fair and balanced."
    The Russian president said direct talks between the sides in the conflict is the only way to avoid further confrontation.
    "There should be direct talks between representatives of these territories, there is no other way," Putin said.
    Representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the separatists and security watchdog OSCE gathered in Minsk for one of their regular meetings on the implementation of the ceasefire deal on Tuesday.
    Last week the OSCE said that despite assertions to the contrary, neither side had completed the withdrawal of heavy weapons as agreed in the ceasefire deal.
    The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday that two Ukrainian serviceman have been killed and five wounded in separatist eastern territories in the past 24 hours as fighting extended along a large stretch of the frontline. Pro-Russian rebels also reported wounded in government shelling.
    Violence has intensified in recent weeks despite a ceasefire deal which was brokered in the Belarussian capital of Minsk in mid-February. Government forces and separatists regularly accuse each other of violations and rebel envoys to peace talks said not enough was being done to shore up the agreement.
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