Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday described the new defence strategy unveiled by US counterpart Donald Trump as "aggressive," saying Moscow would take that into account in its own actions. But he said that although Russia must strive to develop a new and modern army it would not be drawn into a new arms race or aspire to be a "world policeman" and instead be creative.
Speaking to an assembly of Russia's top military brass, Putin slammed the National Security Strategy unveiled earlier this week by Donald Trump, and condemned "offensive" Nato activity in Europe. "In diplomatic terms, it has an obviously offensive character, and if we were to use military language, it is obviously aggressive," Putin said of the 'America First' strategy. "We must take this into account during our practical work." "Let's call things by their name, concerning Europe, infrastructure being created there is offensive infrastructure," he said.
He accused the US of violating the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty dating from 1987 which eliminated all nuclear and conventional missiles with short and intermediate range. Moscow has said the US Patriot missile system in Poland and Romania could be tailored to shoot missiles at Russia.
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