Putin: NATO Needs an External Threat

The annual St Petersburg International Economic Forum excels at inviting key figures of Western corporate media to quiz the Russian President on current affairs. On the one hand, this is done in an attempt to build bridges between the two countries, on the other hand, it is a way to draw a comparison to the US President who has never debated foreign policy decision-making with foreign journalists.

In this outtake, Putin outs the West in supporting Chechen separatism in Russia during the 1990s and early 2000s. Having weakened the country, the US withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, assuming that Russia would never again pose a nuclear threat to US hegemonic power. The US continued to build up its nuclear capability, and today inches closer to Russia's borders with so-called 'missile defense' systems that are key components of Pentagon first-strike attack planning.

In the absence of an exterior threat, Putin went on to say that the Washington-orchestrated coup in the Ukraine was done to justify the existence of an ever-expanding NATO bloc, under the pretext of the mythical "Russian aggression."

And a 2nd video with Putin commenting on Donald Trump, U.S. 'elections', sanctions on Russia and more.