Putin Accuses U.S. of Pushing World into Arms Race

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Friday of making global decisions that will push the world into an arm race, and possibly result in a new cold war.

“It’s not local conflicts but global decisions such as the U.S. unilateral withdrawal from the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty that lead the world to local conflicts,” Putin said replying to a question at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

“It is really a step which is pushing all of us to a new spiral of the arms race because it changes the global security system,” Putin said.

The Russian president also said that “wherever regional conflicts break out, the parties in conflict always inexplicably find weapons,” which could be equally applied to Ukraine’s eastern provinces, according to Putin.

Putin also highlighted that after the collapse of the Soviet Union “several of our partners in the West, including the United States first and foremost, came under euphoria and instead of setting up good neighborly and partner relations, they began grabbing free geopolitical space as they saw it.”

The Russian president claimed the problem with the United States is that it tries to impose standards and decision regardless of Russia’s position of common interests.

In practice, the United States is telling Russia that it knows what is best for it, according to Putin, who said that Russia determines its own needs and interests according to its history and culture.