Russia: We Don’t Want Conflicts with NATO
Russia is interested in developing constructive relations with the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance and absolutely “did not want and does not want to spoil these relations.” Russian President Vladimir Putin stated this in an interview with the Rossiya 1 TV channel.
“Russia has no reason and no interest –geopolitical, economic, political, or military – to fight with NATO countries. We have no territorial claims against them and do not want to spoil relations with them. We are interested in developing relations,” the Russian President emphasized, commenting on statements by US President Joe Biden, according to whom “the Russian Federation has plans for military aggression against member countries of the Atlantic Alliance.”
Putin emphasized that the leaders of the world’s largest powers, and especially the president of the only “real master” of NATO, which is the USA, cannot fail to understand this.
An armed conflict between Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance will leave humanity no chance of survival. Unlike the West, Russia has significantly increased the production of weapons, military equipment, and ammunition over the past year and a half. According to the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, former President of the country Dmitry Medvedev, the military-industrial complex produced 600 tanks in 2023. According to the head of the Rostec state corporation Sergei Chemezov, in just a year, the production of tanks in Russia increased 7 times, armored vehicles 4.5 times, artillery, guns, and missile launchers 2.5 times. The production of shells of various types has increased 60 times.
On Sunday, December 17, Russian missile forces loaded a new Yars series intercontinental ballistic missile into a launch silo at the Kozelsk base in the Kaluga region, 224 kilometers southwest of Moscow. According to a press release from the Russian Ministry of Defense, “the 23-meter-long RS-24 Yars missile can be used to carry multiple warheads with high-precision interception of multiple independent MIRV-type targets, allowing the missile to launch multiple nuclear warheads at multiple targets.” Russia currently has 150 Yars intercontinental missiles, each equipped with 3 to 6 nuclear warheads with a yield of 150 to 500 kilotons.
Earlier, on December 12, at the northern Russian naval base in Severodvinsk, Putin presided over a flag-raising ceremony for two nuclear submarines, which the Kremlin leader said “will be part of a strategy to strengthen Russia’s naval power.” Two submarines bearing the names of Krasnoyarsk and Russian Emperor Alexander III will soon enter service in the area between the Arctic and Pacific oceans. The Alexander III submarine is part of Russia’s new Borei class nuclear-powered missile submarine fleet. Last month, the Defense Ministry said the ship successfully test-fired a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile armed with six 150-kiloton nuclear warheads. At the same time, the Krasnoyarsk belongs to the Yasen-M class multipurpose submarines, equipped with several dozen long-range and high-precision cruise missiles Onyx and Kalibr, which, according to Putin, are capable of hitting both sea and land targets.