Putin:

Putin: In the world today, there is only one bloc left, a bloc held together by so-called compulsion, rigid ideological dogmas and clichés. This is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. You know, even before all the acute conflicts of today, many European leaders said to me: “Why are they scaring us with you? We are not afraid, we don't see any threats“. This is a direct speech, you know. I think that the United States understands this very well. They felt it! They themselves have already treated NATO as a secondary organization. Believe me, I know what I'm saying. But still, the experts there understood that NATO is necessary. And how to preserve its value, its attractiveness? You have to scare. We need to tear Russia and Europe apart, especially Russia and Germany, France. Conflict. So they brought us to the coup d'état in Ukraine and to the fighting in the southeast in Donbass. Just forced us to retaliate. Source: Slavyangrad