Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an extended interview on Russia 24 TV yesterday, which covered a wide range of material. He received some press coverage for his endorsement of the research by Seymour Hersh into the act of terror against the Nord Stream pipelines. Putin said that an “American journalist, who recently gained prominence in the world, conducted an investigation and … concluded that this blast was orchestrated by the U.S. special services. I fully agree with these conclusions.” He added on the prospects of proving what happened, “I believe that it will be hard to attain this, but someday it will probably come out for sure what was done and how.”
Of note, he explained that he won’t allow the burden of military concerns dwarf what is needed for the economy: “We are building our economy in such a way that we do not allow excessive militarization. As for all our plans for civil engineering, healthcare, education, infrastructure development, we are not cutting anything. Nothing!” However, the West has different problems and they “will have to cut” spending.
Otherwise, he denied that Russian-Chinese cooperation is a threat to the West. “We are not creating any military alliance with China. Yes, we also cooperate on the track of military-technical cooperation, we do not hide it, but it is transparent, there is nothing secret there.” There are joint military exercises. “By the way, not only with China, but with other countries as well. We even continue it now, despite the developments in Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson. We still continue; it’s all transparent, but it’s not a military alliance.”
He contrasted this to the push for a Global NATO, which he compared to the Axis of World War II, particularly the Germany-Japan aspect. Putin explained that the North Atlantic Alliance’s new strategic concept explicitly says it plans to develop relations with Asia-Pacific countries and plans to create a Global NATO. “And this gives grounds for Western analysts, Western political analysts to say just that the West is building new ‘axes.’” He stressed: “It is Western analysts, not us, who say that the West begins to build a new axis similar to the one that was created in the 1930s by fascist regimes in Germany, Italy and militaristic Japan.”
