‘Everything is fine as long as…’: Putin accuses West of encouraging separatism, attacks NATO expansion plans

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of encouraging separatism in Russia and attacked NATO for increasing its defence spending citing Moscow’s “aggressiveness.”

Putin said that Russia’s repeated security concerns regarding NATO’s activities were ignored by the West.(via REUTERS)

Putin also hit out at the Western nations for repeatedly ‘betraying Russia’ by not honouring their promises regarding NATO expansion and resolving the conflict in Ukraine.

“No one has wished to pay attention to the Islamic State, as long as it operates against Russia. Explosions in Moscow, and all that. This is still happening today,” Putin told reporters at the Belarus capital Minsk, according to news agency PTI.

“No one wants to pay attention to this. Everything is fine, as long as it is against Russia,” the President said on the sidelines of the summit of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

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“The same happened when the collective West encouraged separatism in our country, and such an instrument of the fight against Russia as terrorism,” he further said.

Putin also said that Russia will no longer play “one-sided” games with the West, according to state-run television Russia Today.

“Western nations have repeatedly betrayed Russia by not fulfilling their promises related to NATO expansion and resolving the Ukraine conflict,” he said.

He also said that NATO is using alleged Russian “aggressiveness” to justify plans to increase defence spending and bolster its military presence in Europe.

“No one is saying a word about how we’ve come up to the Russian special military operation,” the Russian President reportedly said.

He added that the roots of the conflict in Ukraine goes back decades when Moscow was “blatantly lied to” about NATO expansion.

“What followed was one expansion wave after another,” he stated.

He further said that Russia’s security concerns about the bloc’s activities have been consistently ignored and met with silence.

“Isn’t it aggressive behaviour? That is precisely aggressive behaviour, which the West does not want to pay attention to,” he added.