NATO Secretary General calls Putin's “red lines” a fake

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has questioned Vladimir Putin's statements that Western weapons strikes deep inside Russia could become a “red line” after which the alliance would be at war with Russia. Stoltenberg called it a fake, like many other threats by the Russian president.

He recalled that earlier Putin had repeatedly talked about “red lines”, but there was no reaction from Moscow after crossing them. “He did not dare to do so because he realizes: NATO is the most powerful military alliance in the world. In addition, Russia realizes that a nuclear war cannot be won and participation in it is unacceptable. We have repeatedly conveyed this to Putin,” Stoltenberg emphasized in an interview with The Times.

The NATO secretary general noted that Putin is now trying to unite authoritarian states such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea around the war in Ukraine, but Moscow is becoming increasingly dependent on Beijing. The leading role in the alliance of the mentioned countries is played precisely by China, which is also the Kremlin's main accomplice, Stoltenberg added. He recalled that it is China that actively supports the Russian military economy, supplying, among other things, microelectronics and microprocessors, which are used to produce missiles and bombs used in Ukraine.

Stoltenberg added that Russia shares technologies with China in exchange for China's assistance, but did not specify what kind of technologies we are talking about.

The secretary-general also backed the position of Britain and France, which are in favor of approving strikes deep into Russia with Western weapons. “It is wrong to say that NATO allies will become a party to a conflict if they allow weapons to be used against legitimate targets on Russian territory. North Korea and Iran provide significant military support and supply missiles and drones to Russia without becoming a direct party to the conflict,” he explained.

Putin said on Sept. 12 that strikes with long-range Western weapons deep inside Russian territory would mean a NATO and U.S. war against Russia. The Times's informed sources say Washington has no plans yet to allow Ukraine to use U.S. ATACMS missiles for such attacks. However, the United States is expected to agree at the UN General Assembly in New York on Sept. 22-23 to use long-range British missiles for strikes deep inside Russian Federation.

Reprinted from https://news.am/