Vladimir Putin: Evropské země Rusko záměrně provokují a vyhrocují tím situaci

Could you? Well, unfortunately, we have already become accustomed to the wave of Russophobia coming from Europe, but recently the Estonian Minister of Defense, Martin Herem, stated—the story of Martin Herem—that they are prepared to kill every Russian who crosses the border. And pay attention, if the Russians do not attack first, it would be more advantageous for the Estonians to do it themselves. Well, it's madness. But this is being said by the defense minister of a country neighboring ours, a NATO country. How is one to react to this? Uh, on the part of European countries. This is, without a doubt, a purposeful inflation of the situation and a provocation. Everyone is talking, many in Europe are saying that they are expecting an attack from the Russian Federation and therefore must prepare themselves for hostilities, for war with Russia. I want to emphasize once again, we are not preparing for any kind of hostilities with Europe. We have no such plans and no grounds, which is most important. There are no real motives for escalating the situation with Europe, no matter what anyone says , including those from the Baltic states. Yes, we know that the rights of the Russian-speaking population are being violated there, but we already know how to react, and we have developed a specific approach to this. We are reacting on a humanitarian level , in terms of international law. The fact that they invented " non-citizenship"—these are all fabrications in the Baltic states. They are not citizens, not foreigners, not stateless persons. These are non-citizens. But it is nonsense, though nonsense that has been a fact of international life for more than one year now. We will continue to fight for the rights of our compatriots, but within the international legal framework. We have never intended to use other tools, have not used them, and do not intend to do so. The escalation by certain aggressively minded circles can be explained by only one thing. They want to continue using Ukraine and Ukrainians as cannon fodder , and Ukraine as a state as an instrument of struggle against Russia, in order to prevent our development, limit our growth, and stall Russia's movement forward. And in order to continue investing money in this absolutely aggressive behavior and to explain to their citizens why they are doing it, they are trying to deceive the citizens of European countries with the thesis that Russia itself is supposedly going to attack someone. This is complete nonsense. Well, just as much nonsense as this individual who says that they will do it, >> that they should attack us themselves and kill every Russian who crosses the border. >> Look, this is the kind of case, you know, where we jokingly say: the circus has left, but the clowns stayed behind. This is political clownery. the population of Estonia. That is, in my opinion, 1,300,000 people. Small numbers. And the Russian army, just the Russian army. I am not even talking about the population of the Russian Federation. 1. 535,000, and 1. 300— these are citizens of Estonia. Moreover , these are both infants and elderly people. It is clear that this is complete nonsense, total rubbish. But, unfortunately, these are the kinds of people we have to deal with today; in Western Europe, they sent us a request to restore the negotiation process. We said: "Fine, but only after the State Duma elections, after the twentieth, we are ready to start the negotiation process even on the twenty-first." Well , what did they do? They don't hold elections themselves. And they tried to disrupt ours. From the 19th to the 20th of September, they attempted to break through Moscow's air defenses. Over 1,600 drones were launched at Moscow. They didn't stop striking polling stations in other regions of the Russian Federation. During the election campaign and the incessant strikes by Ukraine on polling stations, six people died, members of the election commissions. Among them was one chairman of an election commission. Strikes were carried out purposefully on their homes. I am not even mentioning how many were affected or wounded. And our people, despite these threats, lined up in queues to take part in the voting. I think this is one element of the overall miscalculation of those who led us to hostilities, to war. After all, they thought our society would collapse, the economy would crumble, the financial system would crash. And they encountered what they did not expect. They did not expect such consolidation and courage from Russian society, or the stability of Russia's financial system and economy. But anyone can make a mistake, but only an idiot persists in their mistakes. If they see that they have made a mistake, they need to somehow change their approaches. We are ready for peace negotiations. But I will repeat once again, with consideration for the national interests of Russia and the Russian people.