Speaking to Russian air force pilots on Wednesday, Russian president Vladimir Putin said the US-led military alliance had kept expanding eastwards towards Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union but that he has no plans to attack the NATO.
Note: This transcript presents what Putin said and as he said while at the Torzhok Air Base in the Tver Region - it may contain a selective view of information to argue Russia’s case for its invasion of Ukraine. Russia refers to the Russia-Ukraine War as a special military operation.
Here is the full text transcript of Putin's conversation with military pilots:
Question: Comrade Supreme Commander-in-Chief, how would you evaluate the actions of our military aviation during the special military operation?
Putin: Excellent. Everyone does a great job and makes a huge contribution to the overall success. Huge. Attack aircraft pilots - I think they have a very hard job, I spoke publicly about this before, I flew a couple of times too - it’s a very hard job, the overload is very high.
You have a difficult job, you have to hold the machine, it is a combat craft we are talking about, and work precisely. Same for bomber aviation and our new fighters, Su-30, Su-57. And the most important thing is that all the guys work, fight fearlessly, and make a huge, simply huge contribution to achieving common success. You know theywe are always waiting for you on the ground, and the retention of personnel on the ground depends on the effectiveness of your work. It is obvious. So thank you very much - to you and all your pilots. And to those who fly helicopters, combat crafts, and planes. Transport aviation [makes its contribution], transports personnel, and also acts courageously and heroically. Great. So thank you everyone.
Question: ...military spending of different countries...
Putin: : If you look at military expenditures: let’s take 2022 military expenditures, because the results for 2023 are being summed up, and 2024 is too early to talk about. According to our data, we spent 3.5 percent of the GDP on defense needs. Let’s take data that is not ours, let’s take data from the Stockholm Peace Institute, international data, they have the following calculation: The United States spent 3.5 percent of GDP on defense, Russia just under 4 percent. Let's say Israel - 4.5 [percent]. Ukraine spent 33.5 percent in 2022.
Remark: A noticeable difference.
Putin: Of course. But in absolute terms, what is the difference? In 2022, the United States spent, God willing, $811 billion, and the Russian Federation - $72 billion. $72 and $811 –notice the difference, more than ten times. The United States spends, its defense spending is approximately 40 percent of global defense spending, to be precise, 39 percent of global military spending is the United States. And Russia – 3.5 percent. And, keeping this ratio in mind, are we going to attack NATO, or what? This is just nonsense.
Besides, what are we doing now during a special military operation? We protect our people living in our historical territories.
If, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as Russia proposed, they had built completely new security relations in Europe, nothing like what is happening today would have happened. They would simply take into account our interests in the field of security, which we have been talking about year after year, in fact, from decade to decade. Just complete ignorance. They came right to our borders. Were we, perhaps, moving towards the borders of those NATO bloc countries? We didn't touch anyone. They were moving towards us. Have we, perhaps, crossed the ocean to the borders of the United States? No, they have been approaching us and have come close. What are we doing? We only protect our people in our historical territories. Therefore, what they say about the fact that we are going to attack Europe after Ukraine is complete nonsense.
Remark: Intimidation...
Putin: Intimidating one’s own population solely in order to extort money from them, from one’s own people. Moreover, given the fact that their economy is shrinking and the standard of living is falling. It's obviously simple. Everyone recognizes this, this is not some kind of propaganda, this is what is happening in reality. They need to justify themselves, so they scare their population with a possible “Russian threat”, and they themselves spread their dictate to the whole world.
NATO is the "North Atlantic bloc" organization - the North Atlantic. Where is it going now? It’s getting into the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, other regions of the world, and they’re already getting into Latin America. And all under various pretexts, under different excuses - it’s still the same thing: they are promoting NATO there and dragging their European satellites along with them. The latter, apparently, believe that this anyhow corresponds in some way to their national interests, they are afraid of a big, strong Russia, what they are doing is pointless.
We have no aggressive intentions towards these states. We would never have done anything in Ukraine if there had not been a coup there and then military operations in Donbass. They started the war in 2014. They just used aviation - everyone saw these shots when they hit Donetsk from planes. The peaceful city is being bombarded with missiles from the air. Are you completely crazy? Nevertheless, we still agreed to these Minsk agreements. It turns out that we were deceived, they played to delay us for eight years, and in the end they simply forced us to move on to another form of protecting our interests and our people. That's all.
Therefore, this is complete nonsense - the possibility of an attack on some other countries, on Poland, the Baltic states, and the Czechs are being scared there. Just nonsense, another way to deceive their population and extract additional money from people, force them to bear this burden on their shoulders. That's all.
Question: Comrade Supreme Commander-in-Chief, NATO countries are planning to supply their fighters to Ukraine. It is being discussed in the media that F-16 aircraft will be used in the zone of a special military operation against Russian troops and facilities, including from the territory of NATO countries. Will we be allowed to hit these targets at NATO airfields?
Putin: Firstly, if they deliver the F-16, they talk about it, like they are training pilots, I think you understand this better than anyone else, that this will not change the situation on the battlefield. And we will destroy these fighter jets, just as we are destroying their tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment today, including multiple launch rocket systems.
Of course, if they are used from airfields of third countries, they become a legitimate target for us anywhere. And the F-16s are also nuclear carriers, and we will have to take this into account when organizing combat operations.
Question : You presented the High Command of the Aerospace Forces with a copy of The Icon of the Savior, Image Not-Made-By-Hands on February 21. Today this holy relic moves between parts of the Russian Aerospace Forces; currently it is at our center. We all sincerely want to thank you for the opportunity to touch it, which is so closely connected with the formation of the Russian army and navy.
Let me, on behalf of all military personnel, express my deepest gratitude and respect to you and assure you that you can count on the personnel of the Armed Forces: we will complete any task you set, we will not let you down.
Putin : I have no doubt. Look, this is truly a real holy relic, and it is for the country, for the Armed Forces. It has always, since ancient times, been on our battle banners, on our fortresses, literally fortresses, they protected our people with their walls. In general, according to legend, this is the first icon in the Christian world that was created by God himself. This is such a unique thing.
We talked with the Minister of Defense yesterday evening, we will make several more copies of the icon, The Icon of the Savior, Image Not-Made-By-Hands which is located in the main temple of the Armed Forces, and we will also continue this good tradition of transferring these copies to the combat units that have shown themselves the best way. Before this icon, Dmitry Donskoy knelt before the Battle of Kulikovo, on the Kulikovo Field. It has special significance for the Motherland, for the country, for Russia and for our Armed Forces.
But at the same time, we must never forget that we are a multinational, multi-religious country, we must always treat with respect, and we do so, our brothers - representatives of other faiths: both Muslims and Jews - everyone. We are talking about four faiths and calling them traditional, but we have quite a rich diversity in the spiritual sphere. We treat everyone with respect and provide and will continue to provide everyone with the opportunity to feel that they are defending their own Homeland, and no one has another Homeland. And for us, thank God, that’s how it works. We need to be very careful about our interethnic and interfaith world.
You know, when I listen to our people - there are such people everywhere, in any society - jingoistic patriots, including those who say that Russia is only for Russians, you know, I get a feeling of anxiety. Why? Because if we keep in mind that we have 190 ethnic groups living on the territory of the country and some nationalities are represented by millions of peoples, then as soon as we begin to implement these destructive thoughts about the fact that everyone else is strangers here, we will ruin the country. And the main victims will be the Russian people. Therefore, you need to treat this component very adultly, seriously, not wave your arms and wag your tongue, but think when you pronounce every word, every phrase. To think that we have one big united Motherland.
And it must be said that representatives of all faiths, all peoples of Russia on the battlefield today are showing their best side and treat both their small homeland and our common big Motherland in the same way as,I think, no one in other parts of the world be able to do. And we must be very careful about the unity of the Russian people. And in this sense, I really count on the Armed Forces, on all of you, guys, because in the same row here are people of different nationalities - they go into battle together, help each other together. And when necessary, this has happened more than once, they cover their comrade with their body and do not think about what nationality or religion he is. This is very important.
I think that even the soldiers standing here are also of different nationalities. But the army is an army, it has always been like that in Russia. Always. So I want to wish you all the best, success and good luck, of course. Thank you.
All the best, goodbye!
