Putin: Russia will ‘take into account’ NATO’s nukes

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview broadcast Sunday that after Russia suspended its participation in the last arms control agreement with Washington, it would “take into account” the nuclear weapons capabilities not only of the United States but of other NATO countries such as France and Britain.

Putin had said in a speech suspending Russia’s role in the 2010 New START treaty earlier this week that France and Britain, not parties to the agreement, had joined the United States in targeting Russia with nuclear weapons. In an interview with Russian TV that was recorded Wednesday and broadcast Sunday, he said he took the action to “preserve our country, ensure security and strategic stability” and added:

“In today’s conditions, when all the leading NATO countries have declared their main goal to inflict a strategic defeat on us, to make our people suffer … how can we not take into account their nuclear capabilities? Moreover, they supply weapons to Ukraine worth tens of billions of dollars.”

Putin was repeating his common theme that the West is bent on destroying Russia and that his one-year-old fight in Ukraine is part of a battle for Russia’s very survival. He argued a year ago that his overarching goal in invading Ukraine was to reduce what he perceived as threats to Russia’s security and has since cited those as justification for potentially using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

As Western military aid poured into the invaded country, the Russian leader and his foreign minister have portrayed the war as a de facto fight between Russia and not just Ukraine but NATO.

CIA Director William Burns said Sunday that the real issue behind the invasion is Putin’s loss of control over Ukraine and the country’s rise as an independent, democratic state aligned with the West.

“He’s seen that as a direct threat to the ambition that cuts to the core of his view as a Russian leader, and I think that’s the backdrop to the horrific aggression that he’s launched,” Burns said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”