Putin pointed to the US authorities' desire to bring Russia to the red line
The U.S. authorities are scaring their population with an alleged threat from Russia, trying to bring it to a red line, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on December 16.
"Under the pretext of a mythical Russian threat, [the U.S.] are simply scaring their population that we are going to attack someone. The tactic is very simple: they bring us to a red line, through which we can no longer retreat. We start to respond - immediately scare the entire population," said the head of state at an extended meeting of the Defense Ministry board.
Putin recalled that Washington used to declare the "Soviet threat" in the same way. At the same time, the U.S. is now trying to weaken Russia and inflict a strategic defeat on it, the Russian leader pointed out.
He pointed out that the U.S. authorities continue to pump the virtually illegitimate Kiev regime with weapons and money, as well as sending mercenaries and military advisers to Ukraine, encouraging the escalation of the conflict.
Earlier, on December 11, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) struck a military airfield in Taganrog with six U.S. ATACMS ballistic missiles. Two of them were shot down and the rest were taken off course by electronic warfare. In response to this attack, the Russian army launched a massive strike on critical Ukrainian facilities on December 13.
Prior to that, on Nov. 21, Putin announced a live test of the Oreshnik ballistic missile, one of Russia's newest medium-range missile systems. The move was a response to the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict by Western countries.
The West has stepped up military and financial support for Kiev amid Russia's special operation to defend Donbass, which began on February 24, 2022. The decision to hold it was taken because of the aggravation of the situation in the region due to the increased shelling by Ukrainian troops.
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