Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, has predicted that the dramatic increase in NATO defense spending agreed last week will lead to its collapse.
Responding to the statement on Thursday from Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, that an arms race between Russia and the West could result in the fall of Vladimir Putin, Lavrov said: “He can probably see—since he is such a wise sage—that the disastrous increase in spending of NATO countries will also lead to the collapse of this organization.”
“Meanwhile, Russia—as President [Vladimir Putin] said the other day in Minsk after the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting—plans to reduce its military spending and be guided by common sense, rather than imaginary threats, as NATO member states do, including Sikorski,” he said, according to Russia’s state TASS news agency.
In an interview with the AFP news agency last week, Sikorski said: “Putin should understand that he is on the path of (Soviet leader Leonid) Brezhnev. He himself once said that the Soviet Union collapsed because it spent too much on armament, and now he is doing exactly the same thing.”
This is a developing news story—more to follow.
